


Metamorphosis

by TrashBadger



Category: Housepets!
Genre: Alcohol, Animal Transformation, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, Furry, Gender or Sex Swap, Heterosexual Sex, Lesbian Sex, Oral Sex, Relationship(s), Size Difference, Suggestive Themes, Swearing, Teenage Drama, Teenagers, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-01-28 22:57:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21400021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashBadger/pseuds/TrashBadger
Summary: Marion thought he had it bad enough when he'd woken up to find he was a squirrel, but now his girlfriend, Lois, has been suddenly turned into a Bobcat!How will this affect their relationships, and their lives?
Relationships: Lois/Marion, Lois/Poncho
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. No escape from reality.

**Author's Note:**

> With the exception of a few minor characters I inserted in this work, all characters are copyright Rick Griffin @ http://www.housepetscomic.com/
> 
> An alternate-story that begins from around this strip: http://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2019/11/08/our-founder/  
I'd been writing it well before that one but I modified a few parts to fit from this one onwards...  
All characters depicted are 17+ (Or at least that equivalent in animal years).  
I've split it up into chapters, the overall work is mostly finished but I'll be doing some editing and small additions to even it out, at least a couple chapters should be posted per day, I'm at 12 total, but that may change over time.
> 
> And Lois is still a female in this, the transformation didn't include a genderswap in this fic.

Grudgingly agreeing to wait for better transport to show up, Lois had been moved into a storage shed to avoid scaring the patrons, during which Marion kept her company. Keene showed up to explain the situation after Poncho spent a few minutes trying to get him up to speed while convincing the zoo security staff not to try anything.

Marion stared at her, getting more frustrated as he tried to console her, it was more difficult to think of what to say than he would have believed had he known he would have had to be placating another human-turned-animal, and it had to be his girlfriend of all people. He tried to think of what would have calmed him down the morning he woke up to find he was a squirrel, but everything that came up sounded token, eventually, he forced himself to say the most reasonable thing he could come up with.

“At least they’ll understand you right away, that’s something.”

“Marion, I have been turned into a cat.”

“And I’m a-... I know. I won’t let them shove you into a cage.”

“Imagine if this _is_ contagious.”

Marion recoiled a little in shock, regret slowly crept onto his face when he thought about that possibility.

“I don’t know. We got poofed into animals, it being contagious makes as much sense.”

A tense silence followed, broken by the cheering of some zoo patrons in the distance.

“If it is, your mother is probably a hamster.” Lois joked, resigning herself to attempts at humor to keep from freaking out.

Marion laughed. “At least you don’t have new appendages to get used to!” Said while raising his eyebrow.

“I do.” She said as she lifted her rump off the wooden floor, revealing a small stub of a tail. “Just not on THAT side.”

“Huh, I guess I didn’t technically lose one.” Marion said as he wiggled his tail.

“What are they going to do with me?”

“I don’t think the ECP will let the zoo keep you here, but for me, they just asked a bunch of questions and then got me set up back at home. Remember that corgi I told you about? Maybe they’ll bring him to come and talk with you.”

“As long as they don’t throw me in some exhibit.” Lois sighed, looking up and noticing a small window closer to the ceiling. “Can you climb up there and see what’s going on?”

“Sure...” Marion said as he skittered up. “They’re too far for me to hear, but I think security is starting to leave.” He turned down to face Lois again. “Looks like they’re not going to tranq you and drag you to one.”

“The weirdest thing was when they said if I didn’t go back right now they’d cut my pay.” Lois mused out loud.

“Lucky you, I just got shoved out of my house with a broom...” Marion turned back to the window, noticing some movement outside. “Hm? Keene’s walking over here.”

“You said he was nice, right?”

“Well, _salesman_ nice.”

“As long as he gets me out of here...” She groaned as she put her face into her paws. “My parents aren’t going to believe this.”

Marion quickly climbed back down and sat down next to her. “My mom did, I think, so yours could too.”

“The ferrets said they would give you a place to stay if she didn’t, right?”

“Yeah, but it is a house with a bunch of wolves and dogs in it.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad, I love dogs. Oh right.”

“Poncho didn’t seem to mind, but I’m sure he’s bewitched by your chin scratches.” Marion said judgmentally.

“How are you even mad about that? When we’re back to normal if you even look at a dog I’m slapping you.” She said, shaking the bag of seed that Marion was sitting on enough to make him pop up and down.

“GAH! Quit it! Sorry!!”

“Okay, so now your girlfriend is a bobcat.” Keene said as he walked in. “Lana brought me up to speed. We’ll be happy to have another candidate for the Equal Chance Program.” He said with what almost sounded like an assuring tone. The ferret snapped his fingers and a suited man walked up. “Escort our guests back to my limousine.”

“If it’s okay, could I just walk home? Without any escorts.” Lois said, internally she felt that with the exception of Marion, she wanted to be alone for a little while rather than be shepherded around by people she didn’t believe sincerely cared.

“No, the zoo is convinced but they’re not that convinced, having a predator that doesn’t actually belong here walking around is a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

“At least you don’t make everyone think you’re going to maul them.” Lois said to Marion.

“I’m the one that has to worry about that, from _everything_! I got chased up a tree by the first dog I saw!”

“Somehow I think that might still be a worry for me.” Lois said while flicking her finger at some of her whiskers.

“Babylon Gardens has been briefed on Marion, so that won’t happen again, we’ll do the same for you, of course, but you’ll have to wear this.” Keene said as he pointed to a box one of his assistants was holding, they immediately held it up and opened it, revealing a brown leather collar. “We can get you a new one later if you dislike it, but it will be much easier for everyone if you look more like an exotic pet than a feral animal for the time being.”

“I don’t have to wear a collar! Why does she?” Marion shouted, insulted at how another animal of all things was suggesting this. The silence and humorless raised brow Keene took off his large black sunglasses to give let that answer come to him.

“It’s fine. I’ve just been turned into an animal do any of you think I care about wearing a freaking collar?” She snatched it up and snapped it around her neck hastily, eager to get out of this place. “There, it’s on! Can we go now?”

“Yes, and avoid raising your voice at the normals or they’ll notice you look like a feral felidae.” Keene replied.

Since the Miltons were already certain of this bobcat’s identity, Lois was taken to their mansion for the time being, and was being told to wait in the parlor room while they started making calls. Her and Marion were told that they were going to bring King in to chat with them until things had been smoothed over, and based on the confused shouting her mother did over the phone when Keene, then a local police officer, then Lois, attempted to explain what happened. As Lois had guessed, Lana and Keene had absolutely no idea what caused the transformations or if it was contagious, security footage and recordings from within the mansion proved that Thomas had been trying to steal from the Miltons to begin with and wasn't to be trusted. Once again, the two were back to square one.

King was surprised to be called in to chat with another supposed transformed human, trying to come up with reasons why it could even be happening the way there, grumbling about the idea of another wayward pair of gods deciding to play more games with mortal lives, imagining himself marching back up to heaven and throwing some spears at that pompous whale for letting-no, he thought, that probably wouldn’t end well. ‘_You’re overthinking again’_ he thought, a habit Bailey had been trying to help him break. After taking a few breaths, he stared around at the opulent rooms he was walking through, the grand hall, the arcarde, the refrigerated room filled with dozens of flavors of pudding, the rooms that seemed to have no use. All it did was make him think ‘_Why couldn’t those spoiled furry noodles set us up here!?’_ Back to the present, he reached the room he’d been told Lois and Marion were waiting in.

“Hello. I’m King.” He said as the large wooden door opened and he entered the room, his eyes unable to stop themselves from drifting to the bar filled with insanely expensive liquors and spirits on the far wall.

“Lois.” She answered.

“He’s the corgi I told you about.” Marion said.

There was an air of uncertainty, none new quite where to start with this since no one knew anything about how or why it was happening. Eventually, even though she knew there probably wasn’t an answer, Lois asked that obvious question once King had reached the small mahogany table they were sitting at and jumped up to one of the red-cushioned chairs.

“Do you have any ideas about why this happened?” Lois asked once it looked like he was settled.

“I’m sorry, but no. I can’t explain what happened with me without sounding utterly insane, but it might help so I’ll try...” King paused, trying to come up with a good nutshell explanation that could keep the important parts without bombarding the other two with something he knew no one would believe and saying anything that contradicted what he’d told Marion a few days before. “In my case, there was a very powerful jerk that went by the name of Pete, him and his sister were playing a sort of game with our lives, he did this to me so I would be a part of it. I know neither of them can do that right now, but there is another person that was involved in that ‘game’, and even though he didn’t really do anything, he’s basically a monkey’s paw personified. He might have had something to do with this.”

“...You didn’t tell me he said wizards did it.” Lois said after staring blankly for a minute, looking at Marion in an accusatory fashion.

“I said he said was magic! What’s the difference?”

“Honestly we still need to figure it out. Those two I mentioned shouldn’t be around anymore so... I have no idea how it happened. I’ll ask that third ‘wizard’ I was talking about, but, he’s an ass so I doubt I’ll get a clear answer.”

“He’s right you know.” A smug voice sounded out from nowhere, yet sounded as if it was next to everyone in the room simultaneously.

“What was that!?” Marion shouted.

“I don’t like to talk to him or about him, but there’s your answer.” King said apologetically.

Lois looked down with a mix of confusion and concern arising from an existential crisis.

“Can’t he fix this?” Marion finally asked.

King paused, waiting to see if the voice felt like getting involved, which it apparently didn’t “...From what I know, he doesn’t really do anything besides taunt people. Trust me when I say you don’t want to hear from him, ever. You know what? Just forget I even mentioned him.” King said in annoyance, squinting angrily at various corners in the room, briefly shooting a longing glance at the bar.

“So you really have no idea who’s doing this? None at all?” Lois asked, still confused.

“No... I’m sorry.” King sighed and then ripped a piece of paper off of the small notebook that was on the table, taking a nearby pen and writing on it. “Here, it’s my number, please call it if you ever want to talk. About anything.”

“Thanks.” Lois said tiredly after taking it, leaning forward and putting her face into her paws. “Now I have to explain this to my parents... And as to why the answer is ‘magic’.”

“My mom is trying to accept it, they will too.” Marion tried to reassure her. “You’re still you.”

“My mother did as well...” King said, regretting saying it immediately and hoping they wouldn’t ask him to elaborate on it, luckily neither of them noticed the face he started making and didn’t. “Though maybe don’t tell them exactly what I just told you, it will only make it harder to believe... Unless a certain SOMEONE wants to actually HELP for a change!?!” King shouted, accusing the walls of laziness.

“Well, this last week of school is gonna be fun...” Marion said after a long silence that was beginning to turn awkward.

“Zip it.” Lois immediately replied. “Are they even going to let me go? If it is contagious...Marion’s probably already infected half of the school, nevermind.” She realized, resting her chin on her paw and staring off at one of the walls in apathy.

“I haven’t heard of any others.” King said. “The ECP told me you were the second so I don’t think they have either.”

“Does it spread by physical contact?” Lois asked, still staring off at some gilded drawn curtains just next to her.

“I called my mom a little while ago, she’s still human, I don’t think I’ve touched anyone else... So probably not.” He shrugged.

“If it's anything like my situation it isn't contagious, but we'll see. Can I have your numbers as well?” King asked. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to call you two occasionally, just to talk. Being a teenager was bad enough without this...” He said while pointing to his furry body.

“Yeah, one second.” Lois said while writing hers down.

“You can have my mom’s, I’m too small to carry my phone around anymore.” Marion said, struggling with the small pencil.

“I remember when they were trying to make those smaller, now everyone has a portable TV in their pockets...” King ruminated while taking the paper. “Call me if you need anything.” He offered while getting up to leave. Before he made it to the door, some impulse got the best of him and he quickly snuck over to the bar, climbed up the ladder, and took a swig out of a very gaudy bottle. The other two in the room resigned themselves to whatever they were going to be put through next, and Lois wouldn't have guessed trying on clothes was going to be the first thing on that list.


	2. Fast Times

Marion couldn’t believe how much the world had turned upside down, again. Now he of all people had been giving his girlfriend advice on how to handle being suddenly turned into an animal, not like he had much to tell her that she didn’t quickly learn from Keene, King, and everyone else in the ECP, he’d only been in it for a couple days after all. The worst part was the jealousy, how most of his new experiences were centered around being a foot tall, and Lois had only lost about that much from her overall height.

“At least they learned to be quiet about you, I got the morning announcement special.” Marion said as the two sat at a lunch table together on their final day in school, or at least Lois sat at it, Marion had to sit on it.

“This was going to be bad no matter what, now everyone’s just staring at the new bobcat in school. Said bobcat also happens to have the exact same fashion sense as a certain student that isn’t here and is hanging out with a squirrel who they know used to be the human boyfriend of said girl.”

“We could sit with the wolves, you know? Blend in.” Marion suggested, clearly not a fan of the idea.

“Nah, I can tell you’re still terrified of them.” Lois smirked.

“I’m a squirrel, as far as nature is concerned I’m terrified of everything. I wasn’t even born with these stupid instincts and I’m still stuck with them.” Marion said, only half paying attention as he gazed longingly at the chicken nuggets Lois was chowing down on.

“Tell me about it, it’s like I want to scarf down everything in sight.” She said, staring down at him menacingly.

“I will stab your tongue with this fork.”

“I’m just messing with you.”

“At least you can still eat meat...” Marion hunched over and looked down at his plate in annoyance, grumbling. “Of all the things to get turned into, it had to be a squirrel. I would’ve accepted a small dog.”

“You can though.”

Marion stared at her blankly.

“Okay, knowing no squirrel biology made sense when you weren’t one. Didn’t you look up anything about them?”

“ADD is a superpower and YouTube is my kryptonite, sue me. Just tell me I can eat meat, even if it’s a lie. And hand me a bit of your nugget.”

Lois tore a piece off and dropped it on his plate. “Don’t do it often, but you’re what’s called an opportunistic eater, they’ll eat meat if they’re hungry. Munch up, but treat it like you’re murdering your diet.”

Marion quickly gobbled up the tiny piece, getting disappointed as he did. “It doesn’t taste as good as it used to...”

“To me it tastes even better, but fruits and veggies taste like paper.”

“How’s that fair?” Marion retorted, pretending as if he were insulted.

“Suck it up, I’m top of the food chain baby.”

“You’re just a bloated house cat, not a lion.”

“I could crush you with my thumb.” Lois said while sticking her thumb out and poking the side of his head a few times.”

“Are you threatening me!? I’ll sue your ass bald!”

Both of them laughed for a few seconds before the bell rang, forcing them to flinch and start to raise their hands to cover their ears. They didn’t think they could ever get used to how much more obnoxious those sounded now, but there were only a few of those bells left in their lives, all of which would be done in a few hours, so they figured it didn’t matter. Alarm clocks, now those could absolutely go to hell.

Later the two went over to Lois’s house to try and wind down now that their last day of school was done, the ECP was letting them have it to themselves before throwing any options at them for their futures, so the two went to Lois’s house to hang out and try to get their minds off the ordeal, but Marion was too anxious not to start flipping through the catalog they’d been sent.

Like clockwork, her father came in to check on the two again, previously this would have been for other reasons, now it was just hoping his daughter had magically turned back. “Do you two want anything?” He asked, trying to cover for himself.

“Dad, we’re fine, you just asked like twenty minutes ago.” Lois replied, rolling her eyes. Much as she knew this wasn't easy on him, she was getting beginning to get annoyed with the attention.

“I know, just yell if you need anything.” He said while closing the door.

“So... Randy’s party is tonight.” She said while reclining against her pillows and scrolling through her phone, lamenting how it couldn’t recognize her fingerprint or face anymore and so she had to enter her pin every time she wanted to unlock it.

“Crashing a party is probably the dumbest thing I could do.” Marion said while absent-mindedly watching a discovery channel documentary on the TV in the corner of the room.

“His parents are out of town, so if we show up late everyone’s gonna be too wasted to notice.” When Marion kept trying to focus on the brochure she leaned forward and bounced on the bed to force him to pay attention to her “Do you have any idea how popular a drunk squirrel would be? You’d totally be the king of that party.”

Marion sighed “I know I’m being a downer all the time, but I’m a foot tall now, there’s not a lot I can do.”

“Except stay up all night playing Civ.”

“Well, yeah, what else am I supposed to do?”

“We can still go out and do things, yeah it’s gonna be weird with, well... this, but hey, if we go to the movies you can sneak in like it’s nothing.”

“What about your uh, new species? Would they let a feral in?”

“As long as I have the collar on I can just say I’m a really big manx, it’s easier than pulling out the ECP card, haven’t tried that at the theatre yet.” She put her phone down and started tugging at her shirt repeatedly, trying to air it out. “But me being in clothes seem to be weirding everyone out more than anything, and they’re really hot to wear too...”

Thinking further about it, Marion realized that the only thing his defeatism would do is make both of them miserable. “Yeah, sure, let’s do it.” He said as he got up and moved over next to Lois so he could see what she was doing on her phone and help pick out something to watch.

The two got Lois’s father to drive them to the theatre, it was clear he was still trying to appear like it wasn't bothering him as much as it actually was, but was still trying to get used to it. He wasn’t the worst affected person, after all.

“Call me right away if it even looks like someone’s calling animal control. You two have fun!” He said while waving them off.

“Your dad is being a lot nicer to me now...” Marion said after waving with a nervous smile.

“You went from being a teenage boy to a female squirrel, his cliché overprotective father instincts aren’t designating you as a threat anymore.” Lois replied, deadpan, while unlocking and looking at her phone again.

“What time is it?” Marion asked while looking at the nearby show-times screens.

“Half past six.”

“Look, the movie started fifteen minutes ago!”

“What? It said six-thirty on my phone.”

“Forget it, just hurry.”

Marion hid in Lois’s backpack as she quickly bought the ticket and ran in, only to find out the obvious: The previews were still going on so the movie was probably still a good ten minutes from actually starting, Lois put Marion down in the middle of an empty patch of seats so she could grab some snacks, still managing to get back before it even started.

“Maybe a rom-com was a bad idea...” Lois said. “I don’t mean just because it sucked.”

“What should we do? Put ourselves on hold until we get turned back?”

“What if we don’t?”

“I don’t know, it’s like I’m waiting for this to end but it won’t. I managed to forget about it for the last couple hours, but I don’t know if I thought I was human again or I was just getting used to it.” Marion sighed, slumping on Lois’s shoulder.

“Well if you want to feel human again you could stop hitching rides on my shoulder and walk.” Lois said.

“This is like one of the only decent parts of this don’t you dare take that away from me.”

“Do you wanna, you know, try it?” Lois snidely suggested, complete with repeatedly raising eyebrows.

“Wha-How? I’m like the size of your arm! And you said you weren’t into girls.”

“I’m not, but it’s with you... And I don’t know, we could just cuddle and try something...”

“Your dad could literally crush me with one hand and I do not want to find out how he’d react to catching us doing that.”

“They’re gonna be out until eleven tonight, if I jog home we’ll have a couple hours.”

“Very well, carry me over the threshold.” Marion said, giving into the idea and channeling an actress straight out of an old black and white flick.

One thing Lois noticed is how much more stamina she had, she was never athletic before, but this new body was in prime condition. At a solid jog, she made it home twice as fast as she thought she would and barely even had to catch her breath. The squirrel on her shoulder on the other hand, was exhausted from hanging on for dear life the entire way. Both quickly took off the clothes they were wearing, and sat down on Lois’s bed.

“So what should I do?” Marion asked. “You’re just so big I don’t know where to start.”

“Can it with the cheesy porno lines, baby.” Lois giggled.

“What else am I supposed to say!? You are ten times my size.”

“Here, why don’t you just lay back and let me try something...” She said reassuringly.

“O-okay...” Marion said as he complied, his feral instincts still fighting with him to run from the predator that was towering above him, especially with the hungry expression she was giving him. Slowly, Lois brought her snout down to his crotch, and tried sticking her tongue out at it, lightly lapping at it.

“I thin i jus geffinf fu in muh mous” Lois said, still trying to lick at him.

“Maybe we should try something else? It feels good but I think your tongue is too big to do anythiiIIII-!” Marion started before Lois tried thinning her tongue out and pushing at him harder, with each fleshy barb brushing against his lower lips “Oh yeahhhh!” Lois smiled and kept at it, but had to stop after a minute to give her tongue a rest.

“It’s kinda fun I guess...” she said, her tongue lazily hanging outside her mouth. “Fur tastes terrible though.”

“Licking down there ALWAYS tastes terrible.” Marion pointed out while propping himself up on his elbows.

“But it feels so good doesn’t it...” She said as she pressed Marion back onto his bed and started up again. This time she started out on using the tip of her tongue to push her way into Marion’s new hole, letting those little fleshy barbs on her feline tongue brush his clitoris.

“This beats fingers by a mile.” Marion said through bouts of panting.

“Mup” Lois muffled out while she used one of her fingers to start rubbing Marion’s soft, furry stomach.

Her pace slowed so she wouldn’t tire her tongue out so easily, each passing lap forced Marion up a little further onto the bed, while Lois kept using her paw to push him back down. Soon, his body started making involuntary movements, his legs would twitch and his back would arch. "Holy shit..." Was all he could manage to say. Now he was sitting up, holding onto Lois’s muzzle and trying to force himself further on her tongue, weakly humping at her maw. Lois gave him a minute before trying to pick anything out of his brain.

“How’s it compare to being a dude?”

His explanation suffered from the recovery his brain had yet to complete. “Good? It feels uh, more pressure? Like, all over? I have no idea how to describe it.”

“_More pressure._” Lois repeated before laughing.

“If you suddenly pop out a dick I am going to laugh soOOoo hard as you fumble with it!”

“I’ll make you fumble with it. Now, why don’t you try me?”

Marion gulped at the view of his lynx girlfriend laying back on her bed and spreading her legs for him, putting a paw over her crotch and using the fingers to pull her folds apart. This was something that would have driven him wild if they were both still human, but right now he had no idea what to do as he crawled up to her, intimidation being the feeling at the forefront of his mind.

“I guess I can use my hands.” He said as he started, pulling at her tight folds and sticking an arm in, it was like he was jamming it into a giant fleshy cave, which to him it might as well have been. Lois gave a few soft coos that encouraged him to go further, he obliged by putting both arms in and slowly waving them around, which caused her to start giving the odd moan.

“Yeah, keep doing that, keep going...” She lowly encouraged.

“I’m running out of arm, uhhh...” Marion stopped as he realized her clitoris was staring him right in the face, to him, it was the size of an apple, so, he gave it a few licks.

“Oh THAT! That’s perfect keep THAT up!” Lois moaned again.

Marion grinned, smugly satisfied that even like this he could still please his girlfriend. She started writing in the bed as he started going at it as hard as he could, slobbering all over her apple-sized knob like he was bobbing for it, though he wasn’t getting much out of it, it felt good to be at least able to give something back. Lois started clutching at her sheets repeatedly, fighting the urge to start raising her rear up or put a hand on Marion as he went at her, urges that were getting more difficult to fight as she got more worked up.   
The next few minutes were a blur to them both before a moment came that would be etched into there minds: Marion noticed her legs were closing in on him, and realized how a habit of hers that he thought was cute was now about to turn deadly. “Lois!? LO-!!” was all he got out before he was smothered between her legs, his head being squished right into her opening.

“SHIT! Marion?!” She said as she quickly came out of her stupor and remembered that she was inadvertently trying to crush a squirrel between her thighs and opened them back up immediately. Marion comically pulled his head out of her and fell backwards onto the bed, gasping for air, his face covered in her juices.

“And I think I’m done.” He said as he fell backwards, panting.

“I’m sorry.” She said, genuinely scared she had nearly killed him.

“Heh, hey Lois?” Marion said through suppressed laughter.

“Yeah?” She giggled, catching his tone and calming down.

“I almost drowned in two kinds of pussy just now.”

After the two had washed their affected areas off, which for Marion constituted a bath in the sink, they sat down in Lois’s living room and flipped on the television. This time, instead of sitting next to each other, Lois lied down on the couch and let Marion rest on her chest, which was bare since she’d switched to a button up shirt that would be left open until her parents got home.

“I’m sorry I almost smothered you...”

“It’s fine, I’m just too small for that, and I wasn’t feeling anything like when we used to do it, you know? Like, I don’t mean you were bad, it’s just not the same.” He said, clearly worried that a few parts of that sentence may have offended her.

“Yeah… yeah I know what you mean. We should just put it on hold until we’re back to normal. You can move to Winnipeg and get your squirrel boyfriend, and I can get shoved in a zoo, I’m sure the cats there are nice...”

“Still BFFs?”

“Yep, just no more benefits.”


	3. Jobbers

‘_A programmer?_’ Marion thought while waiting for his turn at the ECP’s hastily set up office on a Sunday morning. The walls were mostly bare save for the windows and a rack of magazines sitting in the corner, the chairs dotting the walls were comfortable enough, even if they looked liked they'd been stolen from a nearby cafeteria. ‘_I don’t know anything about it but I know using a computer is something I can still do as long as I get some equipment more my size… I should see if they have tiny keyboards and mice for pets._’ He started to daydream as he stared at the dark green potted plant in the corner, the leaves rustling whenever the oscillating fan faced its direction again. ‘_What else can I do? Most of these job programs sound like they're for large animals, why didn’t ferrets of all people think of more for small ones?_’ His face scrunched slightly as he once again was brought to a common thought that always upset him ‘_Why did I have to be a SQUIRREL!?!_’

He didn’t know what to think about the other new animals in the office. The beaver, the great dane, and the raven, were they changed like he was? The raven, he guessed, was, since it clearly did not know how to fly. It tried several times to get up to a seat by hopping, then tried climbing up only to find it’s wings had no grip, then finally tried flying only to overshoot the chair entirely and end up on a windowsill above. The other two were watching this with interest, but were otherwise sitting silently, and were more difficult to read.

'I might as well try to make some friends…’ Marion thought as he hopped down from his chair and walked over to the one the raven was nervously perched under.

“Hi, I’m Marion, what’s your name?”

“Roan.” It cawed in a warbling tone.

“When did you get turned into this?”

“Oh? Are you one too?” It asked, Marion nodded and Roan continued, seeming happy to talk about it. “Friday. I was watering my lawn and next thing I know I’m on the ground and I have wings instead of hands. One of my neighbors thought I was just an injured bird and wouldn’t believe me, but then the vet called the ECP to check so now I’m here… What about you?” As Roan asked that, they were trying to gauge if they could hop down onto the seat, but weren’t sure enough to try.

“I woke up like this two weeks ago.” Marion then turned to the others. “What about you guys?”

“Oh, my owner said if I wanted steak for dinner every day I’d have to start paying for it myself, so I’m just here for a job.” The great dane bellowed. “Don’t worry, he told me not to chase anyone here so I won’t.”

The beaver hopped down and waddled over, purposely avoiding shooting any glances at the dog. “I’m Ben. I was at swimming practice and then I noticed that it felt easier but the pool seemed like ten times bigger, then I see a damn beaver in the mirror wall and wonder where the heck it came from, start trying to look around for it, and that’s when I notice I’m covered in fur. That was Wednesday, of course I got kicked out of the gym when I asked for help, but I remembered the news about you and went to this place for help. They got me set up back at home pretty quick, so that was nice.”

“News? They put me in the news?” Marion’s face drooped in annoyed surprise.

“Didn’t you see any of it?” Roan asked. “It was all over the local stuff, even the paper.”

“I try not to read any of that, and I told them I didn’t want anyone to know…”

“They’re not gonna put ALL of us on the news, are they?” Ben asked. “It’s bad enough that my twelve year old brother is having a field day with this.” He said as he waved a webbed hand around his body.

“Did you see any others in the news?” Marion asked.

“Nope” The other two separately replied.

“Then I think you’re safe, my girlfriend of all people got turned into a bobcat.”

“Your girlfriend?” Roan asked. “A bobcat? Really?”

“Yeah…”

“Scooby?” An ECP worker in a suit called from the now open office door. “We’ll get you done first, this should only be a few minutes and I’ll be right with the rest of you. “My name is Sarah, by the way.”

Though all humans looked giant to Marion now, he guessed she was average in height and weight. Her dirty blonde hair with the odd gray strand was pulled back into a professional looking bun, and her face, like her voice, was warm and reassuring. He hadn't spoken to her at all yet and he already knew he'd prefer her over dealing with any of the ferrets.

The dane quickly hopped off his chair and headed inside.

“I have no idea why that wasn’t my first guess for his name…” Ben joked while his tail instinctively flapped on the ground a couple times.

“Hey, this may sound random, but did either of you, er, change genders?” Marion said sheepishly.

“What? Does it do that too?” Roan asked, flustered.

“I didn’t, did you? What are you now?” Ben asked.

“I used to be a guy…” Marion answered, tired.

“At least you can tell.” Roan chimed. “How do I even check if I’m still a guy?”

Neither of the others knew anything about birds, and had no clue.

“Picture an egg, do you wanna sit on it?” Ben asked, chuckling.

“No!”

“Congratulations, it’s a boy.”

Some other small and unimportant chatter occurred, despite what Marion would have thought, it made him feel more human to aimlessly talk to a raven and a beaver than he had with his mother or even Lois. Perhaps it was the pointlessness of the conversation that accomplished this, none of them were trying to relive days before they changed, just blabbing about nothing. After about five minutes, the entrance to the waiting room opened, Roan was the first to notice, since he flapped his wings hard enough to get airborne for a few seconds before he backed right into the top corner of the window and fell back down.

“Easy, I’m not gonna eat you.” The feline grumbled.

“Hey Lois.” Marion said before climbing up to the raven that was having a heart attack. “She used to be human too.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t even know why I did that it’s like my body just took over!” Roan cawed, shaking whenever he looked up at Lois again.

“No worries, believe me, I understand the ways your new instincts like to screw with you. I’ll just have a nap over here in the corner...” She said as she curled up on the corner couch. Now Marion couldn’t help but notice that she was only wearing a pair of light summer shorts, and her bandanna, but nothing else.

“Did you sleep alright?” Marion asked.

“Sort of, I feel wired at night, I thought I- I-” Lois paused to yawn. “Uh, I thought I could make it change by forcing myself to stay awake all day yesterday and trying to sleep at night but I’m just getting more tired...” Sure enough, one second later and her eyes were closed and her ear flicked a few times, she was out like a light.

“Man, I wish I could pass out that easily...” Roan said through his nervousness.

“You can fly, I’m a just a giant rat with a meat waffle for a tail.”

“I don’t _want_ to, I hate heights!”

“Have you tried?” Marion asked. “I don’t like them either but I ran up a tree without thinking about it the second a dog started chasing me.”

“Remember that old meme where someone said birds weren’t singing, they were screaming because they’re afraid of heights?” Ben said before dramatically pointing both hands at Roan.

“At least I didn’t get turned into a walking pussy joke!”

“I heard worse outta my brother before breakfast.”

Roan narrowed his eyes and flapped his wings a few times before belting out: “I bet when he first saw you he asked ‘what’s different about him?’”

“Eh, work on it.”

“Marion? I’ll see you next.” Sarah called out from the now open office door.

The dog named Scooby slowly walked out, suppressing the urge to stare at the sleeping cat that had suddenly appeared on the corner couch he had been sitting on before. Marion walked in a second later, forcing himself to ignore the instincts that told him not to move unless the dog was out of the room.

“Have you thought about what you want to do yet?” She asked.

“I’m still not sure. I just got out of high school... how can I even think about what I want to do for the rest of my life? What happens when I change back?”

“Just think of it as a summer job, you can switch at any time. The ECP is funding this, none of the places offering these positions will be upset if you decide you want something different.”

“Uh, mechanical inspector maybe? It sounds interesting, but why would they want a squirrel to do it?”

“Here, I have some more information...” She paused to read through it quickly. “Think smaller areas that something could be broken in, like a pipe or a vent. Humans can’t reach too far inside to check so they need to take it apart, someone as small as you could go in, find the problem, and maybe even fix it without any of that hassle. They specifically wanted a few smaller animals for that one.”

“To be honest I still have no idea if I want to do it, but I’ll try it.”

“Great, I’ve got the paperwork here, I’ll help you fill it out now and get it sent out by the end of the day.”

Meanwhile, the two smaller animals left in the room were intimidated even further as another large canine came in. “This is the ECP’s new office, right?” He asked to the beaver and raven that were fixated on him completely.

“Yeah. Sorry about the staring man, what’s your name? I’m Ben”

“Poncho.” He said while taking a seat.

“Poncho? Was he like a Native American or something?” Roan whispered.

“When did you get turned?”

“I’m a natural wolf. Rawr.” He said while pointing a claw at them for effect.

“Oh!” Both stammered out as their fear-driven instincts kicked up again, Roan shuffled further into the window but Ben didn’t have any way of acting on his besides hiding under a chair.

“Do you want me to eat you before or after your orientation?” Poncho said while licking his lips in a way that overrode the phony way he said it.

“Uhhh...”

“Don’t worry, I’m just messing with you...” He said, trying to be reassuring.

The other two tried to sit still and look like they were waiting normally, but it was obvious they were still terrified. He popped up when he caught a familiar scent in the room and looked over to a corner he hadn’t yet seen, recognizing the bobcat napping on it.

“So, what are you here for?” The beaver asked, trying to hide the instinctive fears that kept beating in his mind.

“A new job, I was part time at the zoo but it’s really not working out.”

“You can do part time at a zoo?” The raven asked.

“They’re not gonna want a common raven, man.” The beaver replied.

“Don’t spread this around, but one of the parrots in the aviary is actually just a crow that paints his wings blue, you probably can.”

“That’s cool. B-but I was just wondering. I don’t think I’d like it there.”

“Yep...” Poncho sighed.

The door opened and Marion walked out. “She said she’ll take Roan next.”

Roan didn’t say anything, but sighed in relief, but that that relief turned to anxiety when he remembered why he’d been stuck on that windowsill for the last half-hour. “I can’t get down...”

“Can’t you fly?” Poncho said, surprising Marion who hadn’t noticed him yet.

“I really don’t like heights... and I don’t know how to fly.”

“Here.” Poncho said as he walked up to him and stuck out his large paw, poor Roan was completely frozen with fear until Poncho spoke again. “Just hop onto me and I’ll lower you down.”

Anxiously, Roan slowly complied, inching over the sill until he finally made the last leap to the paw. “Just please go slow...” He pleaded, Poncho lowered him until he was nearly at ground level and was comfortable jumping off by himself. “Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Poncho said emotionlessly as he walked back over to where he’d been sitting before and sat down. “Hey Marion."

“Hey. Are you here about us?” Marion said, still a little suspicious of Poncho, given that he was the only one near Lois when she’d turned and no clues had been uncovered as to how it happened.

“No, I’m looking at getting a new job.” He answered.

“Oh, that’s cool.” Marion said before walking up to Lois and poking her nose until she woke up.

“Hm? What’s up?” She yawned.

“I just got out, so I’m heading home, did you wanna hang out later?”

“Sure, I’ll call you when I’m done here.”

“Cool, I’ll see you.” He said as he excitedly left the room through the smaller mini-door that had been cut out of the normal sized one.

“Hey Poncho, come back for more chin scratches?” She joked while sitting back up.

“N-no!” He said, indignant.

“Why else would you be here?”

“How many times am I gonna have to explain it?”

“He’s uh, here to get a new job.” Ben added.

“There, thank you.”

“You’re trying to get out of the zoo then, huh? That exhibit they wanted to throw me in looked as fun as a brick.”

“It’s not all that bad, the caves are stuffed with everything you’d have at home, we just have to spend all day outside until closing, not counting breaks.”

“Why’d you quit then?”

“The zoo animals are used to it but I was getting sick of being stared at, or laughed at.”

“Mm.” Lois nodded, clearly thinking of starting another nap.

“What about you?” He asked back.

“Job, not sure what yet, I’ll have to ask whoever’s in that office.”

“I used to do security, it’s easy. I did a little camera work too.”

“I’ll think about it, what about you?” She said while lazily pointing to the beaver.

“Orientation I guess, I’ve only been a beaver for five days. Zoo exhibit sounds neat now that I think about it, but what would I have in common with a bunch of actual beavers? Ugh, nevermind, that would get awkward. Just imagine your family watching you in full nude glory hanging out in a zoo.”

“Totally, I already tried talking to some of the other felines there and they’re really boring.”

“You went back? When?” Poncho asked.

“Last week, I didn’t want to spend a lot of time there so I just checked out the enclosures and left. They could load those caves up with anything they want and I still don’t think I’d like sitting in some fake forest all day.” Lois said.

“All the big cats do is sleep all day.” Poncho said jealously. “Everyone kept trying to make us do tricks.”

“Tempting, but I don't think I want to nap with an audience.”

The door opened and Ben was up next, Roan quickly hopped out of the room and left after waving goodbye. Though Lois remained sitting until her turn came up, she was barely conscious, yawning constantly and barely keeping her eyes open.

“I take it your new habits are difficult to adjust to?” Sarah asked.

“You have no idea, my clock’s flipped on its head, and everyone else’s schedule is the same. I’m trying to force it back, I’ll get it down eventually.”

“That may only cause more stress in the long run. Staying yourself is good, but there are some things you can’t fight or it will tax your new body too hard, take your diet for instance, have you been sticking to it?”

“Yeah, but that part is easy, since it actually tastes good.”

“That’s good, now for potential jobs... Hm, if you would like, you could try a position with a night shift and see how that suits you.”

“A night shift? I don’t know, that would pull my social life off of life support.”

“It’s only part time, you only need to try it out, if you don’t like it we’ll switch you to something else immediately.”

Lois looked off out the window and thought about it.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, since you’re still not sure, how about security? We’ve already had several of our members in that program, and it takes little training so it will be easy for you to get used to it and figure out if you really want to try night work.

“Poncho out there told me the same thing. People really want to hire a lynx to do graveyard shift security? I’m not that threatening.”

“It’s a very safe area, if there are any threats you’re only asked to call the authorities, not arrest anyone yourself. Well, that and scare off anything that tries rummaging through the dumpsters.”

“Sounds good.” Lois said. Though, like everyone else that had come into this office, she wasn't sure if this was a good idea, she wanted to at least try something that would give her someplace to be other than her house.

She thanked the worker and walked out once they'd finished with the application forms a few minutes later.

“She said she just has to file some things but she’ll be right with you.” She said to Poncho.

“Gotcha.”

Before she got halfway to the door, she couldn’t help but notice the way Poncho kept trying to avoid looking at her.

“You do want some more chin scratches, don’t you?” She asked teasingly, a smug grin on her face.

“N-no!” He replied as his face reddened.

“Your tail says otherwise.” Lois said plainly as she pointed at the traitorously wagging appendage.

“You tell no one.” He said while grabbing his tail and narrowing his eyes at her, it may have been threatening if his face wasn’t so red.

Lois quickly trotted over to him and massaged his chin, all the conflict disappeared from his face and was immediately replaced by delight. Lois loved this more than she let on, she always wanted a dog but her mother was allergic to most breeds and wouldn’t have it. Poncho got about thirty seconds of sheer bliss before Sarah opened her office again and Lois stopped to help save his tough feral image.

“See you around, tarp dog.” She teased as she waved goodbye.

“Y-yeah...” He stammered, quickly shaking off the afterglow and walking into the office.

“The Miltons’ told me to thank you for deciding to pursue a career other than a zoo attraction.”

“I needed to get out of there, and I’m not doing it just so they can get another case study on how civilized ferals can be.”

“Poncho, if both parties are benefiting from something, what’s the problem?” She continued when he didn’t say anything. “Honestly you’re coming at a good time, we’ll need a runner soon to check in on our candidates and their employers, gauge how things are really going.”

“Can’t you just call them and ask? And half of them think I’m going to eat them.”

“That will pass, they’ll get used to you once they talk to you more, and yes, we do call them to check in, but face to face always tells you more about a situation than a phone can. Like if the equipment they need is up to par, if they’re being treated with respect, if they even like it there. Of course like anyone else, you can try something different if you’d like, but I’ve been told to emphasize to avoid going back to the zoo.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, I don’t wanna go there ever again…”

“Welllll… I’m sorry but part of it is checking in on a certain camel every so often.”

“Do I have to? Don’t the Miltons hate him?”

“The subtext of the order is to make sure he didn’t manage to trick the keepers and get away or start telling bogus stories to anyone else who tries to ask them about why he turned into a camel.”

“Alright, alright, just keep anyone else from going there.”

“Are you kidding? I get a bonus for every ten cases I sway away from it.”

“What? How many have you had?”

“Nineteen, but you count as my twentieth. It includes what we did for your family.”

Poncho rolled his eyes. “So when’s this gonna start?”

“Likely about a week, oh, and if you can give these...” The secretary paused to pull out a large envelope containing several sheets of paper out of her desk drawer and handed it to him. “-to everyone in your family that has a job, we wanted them to agree to be available to offer advice to the newbies... Natalie, Miles, and yes, Jack counts.”

“No he doesn’t.” Poncho said as he accepted it from her.

“The Miltons have agreed to pay for anything you want for your next Holiday party if they all agree. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, any of the above.”

Poncho popped up in his chair and hugged the envelope protectively. “If I can’t make him agree Miles will.”

“Good, now is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

“No thanks, I’m good.”

“It was good seeing you again, Poncho.”

“Have you gotten over how none of us agreed to be your pet dire wolf?”

“Careful, I can rescind that offer...” She said while reaching for the envelope threateningly.

“AAAAHH I SAID NOTHING! YOU HEARD NOTHING! BYE!!” Poncho shouted as he raced to the door, threw it open, and ran out so fast he nearly gave a heart attack to the nervous Russian Blue that had just arrived in the office. It took a good minute before the poor cat could calm down enough to come out from the chair he ran under.


	4. Holding on

His heart was beating in his ears as the massive soulless creature stared at him through its black eyes, the only thing visible about it was the dull reflection of what little light had managed to get this far. His instincts told him to run in several different directions at once, all but one of which would have slammed him right into a metal wall. Every one of his limbs moved with such rigidness it was as if they were frozen, overwhelmed by all the panicked orders his brain was giving out. A tap, a noise so short and simple, rang through the darkness. He realized the white lights had inched closer, and as if his body were unconsciously moving with it, he slid his foot backwards and slowly, moving as if time had slowed down to a crawl, he shifted his weight to his back foot. This first step was the hardest, step after step followed, each getting him a little farther, the crinkling of his puffy bodysuit so loud each one threatened to burst his eardrums. He didn’t know how many inches he’d crossed so far, he didn’t know how far he was from safety, all he could think was to just keep going.... just keep going... it hasn’t moved yet... maybe it won’t. A loud bang rang out through the walls, and every fiber in his being shot him off away from the horrid creature.

“SPIDER!! THERE’S A HUGE FUCKING SPIDER IN THE VENTS!!!” Marion screamed as he shot out of the vent and raced down the pole he’d climbed up to get there, diving into a nearby toolbox.

A fox waved his hands at the terrified squirrel in an attempt to reassure him. “Calm down dude! They probably can’t even bite you through your anti-static suit.” When Marion slowly composed himself and came out he kept trying. “How big was it?”

Marion took a few deep breaths and instead of stating that, reminded his co-worker who he was talking too. “I am less than a foot tall, just imagine you turned a corner and came face to face with a spider the size of your hand.”

“Yeesh. Let me see.” He said as he grabbed a flashlight out of the tool box and moved a ladder so he could get up to the vent. “Where’s your flashlight?” He asked while setting it up.

“It ran out of battery two seconds after I noticed the spider, I dropped it...”

“I don’t think you were too far in so I can probably snake it back with the measuring tape...” Oh, I see him, he’s a real fat August spider ain’t he?” He said with a bit of excitement.

“Don’t remind me.”

“Here, I think I can whack him hard enough to kill him.” The fox said while whipping the extended tape around inside the vent, but suddenly it snapped back at him. “Stupid thin-” The fox froze mid-thought as he looked to see that the spider had hitched a ride and was now on his hand. “WAH!!” He shouted while whipping said hand away from him without paying any attention to his balance on the ladder. “Oh no nuUU!!” Was all he got out before he fell backwards onto the pile of empty cardboard boxes that he had been moving to one corner of the room earlier and disappeared, the force causing several of them to fly all over the room.

The spider flew right past Marion and right into the toolbox, he quickly raced over and slammed it shut, panting like he was having a heart attack. After another few deep breathing exercises, he walked over to the pile of boxes to check on his buddy. “Tim, are you alright?”

“Where’s the spider?”

“I locked it in the...” Marion trailed off a bit as he realized they would have to open it sooner or later. “-ugh, the toolbox.”

“Why in there?”

“It landed in there, I just shut the lid! And see how you freaked out? Try imagining seeing that thing when you’re my size.”

Several bouts of loud shuffling came out of the pile as Tim attempted to get a grip on something solid enough so he could pull himself out of it, after a few seconds of failure, he settled on rolling his way out.

“Okay, I’ll open it and shake him out.” He sighed as he stood up, trying to smooth out his wrinkly body suit.

“Then what?”

“I can handle a spider, I just didn’t expect him to fly onto my hand.”

“What if it jumps out at us when we open it?”

“Stop it! You’re freaking me out!”

Coming in to check up on their progress in investigating a noise fan in an office’s ventilation system, their supervisor opened the door to see the two surrounded by a mess of cardboard boxes and scattered tools, staring at their toolbox, both turned and gazed at him blankly when they realized he had come in.

“There’s a spider in the toolbox...” Tim blurted out.

“Oh my go-” The supervisor paused to roll his eyes. ”You guys are doing fine but why is it that every time I leave you alone something silly like this happens?”

“I dunno.” Both sighed.

Later, the two sat at a table in the lunch room of the building today’s job was in, Marion had taken to eating a diet more appropriate for his species. He’d been convinced, under supervision with a small dose of epinephrine at the ready, to see if his tree nut allergy had stayed with him. Fortunately, it had not.

“Hey.” Tim said while looking at his phone. “I just got an email, we’re getting another co-worker tomorrow.” His brow popped up in mild surprise. “Lucky you, it’s another squirrel.”

“Oh, that’s good but I don’t care about that, we were all human a little while ago anyways.”

“Did you wanna play online later? I got my custom controller in so I can do anything now. Or you could come over if you want.”

“I’m not doing anything tonight, so sure, I’ll come over. How’s your sister doing by the way?”

“She’d still swap gladly with either of us even with the whole ‘CEO’s secretary’ thing. She’s STILL crying over her wardrobe.”

“Still? I’d kill just to be your size, nevermind hers, like I’d care about being covered in spots.”

“It’s good for me, now it she ever teases me about my height again, I know exactly how to shoot her down.”

“This new person, what’s they’re name?”

“…William, it’ll be perfect, now you’ve got someone to watch your back when the arachnids attack.”

“Or laugh when you go flying off a ladder but whatever.”

“You flying out of that vent was funnier, and last time I checked flying foxes are way cooler than flying squirrels.”

“What.”

“Cause I’m… nevermind, someone not getting an insult is worse than them not getting a joke.”

“What? I know what a flying squirrel is but what’s a flying fox? You made that up.”

“No I didn’t, they’re like, giant bats. I hope this new guy has at least twice the IQ you do.”

“It could be ten times mine and he still couldn’t understand what you’re saying half of the time!”

Tim just gave him a cheeky smirk until Marion was struck by that double-edge.

The two finished up and headed back to their temporary workzone, before they got started again, their boss came in with the new co-worker in tow.

“Alright, Marion, Tim, this is Will, he won’t be working with you two directly every day, but you’ll still see each other often enough.”

“Hi. I’m Will” He waved pleasantly, he did seem a little nervous when his eyes looked to the fox, but Marion knew he’d been the same way, all it took was a little time and you could overcome those fears.

“Hey.” The other two replied politely, they had more they wanted to say but wanted to wait until the human had left the room, mostly because he would have had no way to relate to the conversation that would arise.

“Why don’t you three chat and get to know each other a bit? I’ll come back to get you in a minute.”

“Okay, thank you.” Will said as the boss walked out. “So uh, how long have you two been here?”

“Almost, what? Three weeks?” Tim said, looking to Marion for confirmation, who nodded affirmatively. “But for the more interesting question, I’ve been a fox since July fifth.”

“Squirrel since I think mid June.”

“Oh! I’ve only been like this for two weeks. Do you ever get used to how much bigger everything is?”

“A little, but trying to open doors isn’t something I’ll ever get used to.” Marion stated.

“I just have to stand on my toes to do it and I still hate it. Oh and feel free to hitch a ride on my head if you ever want to.”

“He’s really soft.” Marion said teasingly.

“His mom says the same thing.” Tim said snidely before turning more serious. “That’s not even a joke she keeps trying to pet me.”

“Hey, William? We’re ready to start.” The boss said.

“Oh, coming.”

“Before you go, Marion and I are hanging out at my place later, did you want to join us?”

“Really? Sure! I’ll wait by the exit.”

“Alright, breaks over, back into the vent.” Tim ordered to Marion.

“I’m taking something I can use to defend myself this time!” Marion said while pulling the lid open, with his small size it was like trying to open a heavy trunk but he preferred to do these things himself when he was able to... And the second it was open, he was treated to an eight legged freak the size of his hand staring back at him.

The three caught a ride from Tim’s mother back to his place, much as she smiled and tried to seem happy, she was trying to force herself accept a situation that she didn’t want to. She had to go grocery shopping and run some other errands so she dropped them off at the front door and waved goodbye.

When Tim opened it he stopped the other two from going in, first poking his head inside and giving a heads up to some entity he clearly was afraid of.

“Farley? It’s Tim, I have two friends here and both are squirrels, don’t chase them.”

No answer.

“Farley!?” Tim shouted louder. “Guess he’s out with the other dogs again.”

“First time I came in here he chased me up a lamp before Tim could get him to stop.” Marion said.

“And he was lucky, Farley dragged me downstairs and kicked me out of the house the morning I woke up like this.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that.”

“Well, I’m sure your first day wasn’t a picnic for you either, and besides, it was damn worth it to see my sister physically throw him out of her room when she woke up as a jaguar two days later. Oh yeah, I didn’t tell you about that, did I?” 

“No, that’s terrible.” Will said with concern.

“Honestly it made it easier for me. Someone in the family to talk to about it helps. Anyways, I wake up to him barking and my sister shouting, then as I come into the hallway I hear a snarl and see Farley go flying out of her room and right into the towel closet.”

Will snickered at the mental picture. Tim gave the two a lift up the stairs into his room, the squirrels didn’t have any problems climbing it themselves, but Marion had disliked how animalistic he looked when he did it and preferred being chauffeured.

“Here’s me.” Tim said as he opened his room door. Several human sized chairs were folded up against the wall, in the place they would have been in front of his large flat-screened television were smaller bean bag chairs that had been designed for pets. A large bow-faced aquarium stood out against one wall, inside it were an assortment of small tropical fish and shrimps, but the main draw was the plant life, stringy thin ones were strewn about, overshadowed by the long and wavy leaves of others. In a basket next to it were nets and cleaning utensils that had small poles taped to them to extend their reach.

“Three things I really liked about the change is that my aquarium, TV, and bed all feel massive now.” Tim popped up and turned to Will. “Ugh, I forgot to even ask, you didn’t have any controllers your size to bring, did you? Console don’t matter, I got all of ‘em.”

“No, that’s a thing? I’ve just sticking to turn based stuff.” Will answered.

“I always keep mine in my backpack here.” Marion said while fishing it out. “Why don’t you have some fun first? I can play with it anytime.”

“Oh, sure, I’ll play for a little.

“Could just watch Netflix if you’re not feeling games.” Tim said, walking over to his fish tank to check it out. “Just give me a minute, the PH level is a bit high.”

“He’s in love with that thing, complement it and you’re his best friend.” Marion whispered to Will.

“What kind of fish are those? They’re nice.”

“Oh them? Just some gourami, something that gives more life to the tank and won’t eat my plants.”

“Sorry, I should have specified, complement the plants.”

“Marion keeps forgetting, but FYI my hearing is a ton better than human. He’s right though, you better take a goddamn look at these plants and tell me you love ‘em.”

Suddenly they heard someone calling from downstairs. “Farley? It’s Karen.”

“Farley’s not in!” Tim shouted.

“Oh thank god.” They heard her say, muffled, it got more clear as they heard her trudge up the stairs. “I love that idiot but holy hell I wish he’d get used to my damn scent quicker.”

“Tim, when’s the next time the ECP is-“ She popped her head in, Tim immediately burst out in hysterics and nearly fell off of the step ladder he was using to help him reach the top of his tank. Both Marion and William would have been in hysterics as well if they weren’t much closer to the huge jaguar in a black power-suit, that also happened to be wearing makeup that had smeared on her face until it looked like she’d applied it with a paint roller.

“Shut up!”

“I didn’t know the zoo was opening a brothel!”

“I said shut up you bite-sized little shit!”

“Seriously! Why are you still trying to do that? You know it doesn’t work!”

“I don’t fucking care, I’ll get it down. One more quip out of you and I’m not helping with your tank anymore!”

Marion and Will were barely able to suppress laughter while Tim cowered at that threat.

“Alright, alright, but just take it off, you’re an exotic predator, you do not need it.” He said while turning back to his tank and using an eye-dropper to put some sort of solution in it.

“I want it.” She said, completely serious. Turning to Marion, she gave him advice he would rather not have had anyone else hear her giving. “Marion, if you ever want to try this stuff, never use eyeliner, it just gets all over your entire eye.”

“I have never used makeup and I don’t intend to.”

“Smart, it’s addictive, stay away from it.”

“Dunno why you can’t, anyways that’s Will next to Marion over there.”

“Oh, sorry, I just didn’t see you, that shirt you’re wearing blends right into your chair.” She said while waiving. “I’m gonna pester you guys for opinions in like ten minutes, so don’t get pulled into anything that you can’t pause.”

“They’re not your beauticians, leave ‘em alone.”

“I need the perspectives and you’re like half my height now, you literally can’t stop me.”

“Just stay away from the pink lipstick.” Tim suggested, doing his best to avoid sounding facetious.

“Already locked it away…” She said as she walked away to her room and shut the door.

Several hours later, it was time for the visitors to go home, and Marion’s mother offered to drive Will home as well when she came to pick him up.

“Why don’t y’all sleep over this weekend? My sis likes seeing you guys too and besides work, she’s kinda become a shut in.” Tim offered while opening the door for them.

“I’ll see what my parents say.” Will said. “They didn’t sound like they wanted me to be here for this long.”

“Thanks for having us.”

Riding in a car was an intensely boring affair for animals of their size now due to how little they could see out of the windows from their seats. Though seat belt laws didn’t really apply anymore Marion’s mother would not have them without one, so being able to stand and lean against a window was out of the question. The ride was quite short, with Marion's and Will’s homes ending up being only a couple blocks away from each other, something Marion’s mother made a note of when she reached it, noting that she may call his parents just to have someone to chat with over their shared situation. Will did not appear to like this idea but didn't say anything to sway her from it.

She got out and opened the door for Will, since it was just too heavy for them to open without assistance. "Sorry about the seat belts, I keep forgetting to pick up some of those special car seats for small pet-sss..." She petered off, worrying about whether or not that was offensive. "Um, well, you know what I mean."

"It's fine, mom." Marion said, leaning out of the passenger side window so he could say goodbye.

“Thanks, I haven’t hung out with anyone for weeks… And thanks for the ride, missus Ward.” Will said, hopping down.

“Tell me anytime you want to do it again, or just ask after work, Tim’s like, always free.”

The two waved goodbye and Marion sat back down and headed home. William sighed sadly and used the dog door to get in.

“Still a squirrel, huh?” A tabby cat laying on the top of a cat post said, a tinge of superiority in her voice.

“Yeah…” William said dejectedly.

“Stop being so down, I’m just teasing… How was your first day?” She said, genuinely trying to express interest.

“It was better than I thought it'd be, I was hanging out with a couple others there with me that are like me. Like me now, I mean.”

“That the other squirrel that dropped you off? That’s good, better than you moping around the house.” She said before turning back around on her cat post and facing the television, unmuting it and going back to her reality shows.

“Yeah, yeah it is." He replied, perking up a little. "Where’s mom and dad?”

“Mom is in the kitchen and dad is working late I think.”

Will nodded and headed there. He had to work up the courage to enter the room and speak with her. It was not as if he were expecting to be scolded over anything, but more that he did not enjoy the tone most familial conversations had devolved into since his change.

“Hey mom.”

His mother popped up slightly, turning and greeting him with a smile. “Hi, Will.”

There was silence for a few seconds before her smile receded and she went back to tenderizing a steak.

“I’m sorry I’m still like this…”

“Oh don’t be sorry sweetie, I’m sure you’ll turn back soon!”

“Uh, I wanted to buy a special controller for my xbox , it’s for small animals like me, so I can play, cause, you know, now I’m too small to reach all of the buttons…”

“Why?” She said while shaking a mix of spices and salt onto the meat.

“I’m not asking you to pay for it or anything. There’s a special store that sells them and I wanted a ride, it doesn’t have to be tonight.”

“It’s bad enough you had to spend anything on new clothes in this ordeal, don’t waste your money on something like that.”

“But what if I’m stuck like this?”

“Why would you be? It’ll wear off eventually.”

“Mom, no one has turned back.”

“Yes, but with all those tests they were running on you I'm sure they'll find out why this is happening soon and get you all fixed up.”

“I’m gonna go to my room and watch TV…” He said, thoroughly vexed and ready to have some alone time for the rest of the night.

“Before you go, I bought some food for you, it’s in that box next to your night table.”

“Thanks.” He said emotionlessly as he left the kitchen and started climbing up the stairs, exhausted by the time he'd made it up to his room.


	5. Catty

Lois Yawned as she got up, her alarm temporarily quieting down, set to give her a minute to get over there and shut it off before it started up again. It was four in the afternoon, two hours until her shift, leaving one to get ready, and one to get there. Half of that first hour went to brushing herself off, no matter how much fur her grooming tools ate up, it barely seemed to make any difference, but she wanted to stick to some kind of normal grooming schedule, even if she’d been indulging her urges to start licking the back of her paw and using that to clean herself lately, especially when bored and on a break at work.

On the way down, she tied on her usual red bandanna and greeted her father, who'd been picking through the fridge and deciding what to make for dinner. "Do you want me to just say 'morning'?" He joked, not looking away from the fridge.

"Hey, I tried sticking to my normal schedule." Putting on a voice like she was a witch starting a monologue, she bellowed "One day I will learn what magic turned into this and use it to turn you into..."

"A donkey?" He said, stealing her thoughts before her mouth could claim them.

"Something like that, are you done in the fridge?" She asked, walking up behind him.

"One second..." He said while grabbing some deli meats and moving out of the way, his back turned to her the entire time.

The fridge door was lazily opened, inside the lowest sections had been reserved for her, consisting of the special diet food designed for her species, and the odd piece of jerky for snacks. Breakfast consisted of said jerky before what would be her lunch was packed up. She briefly remembered that she hadn't put on any actual clothes, something that happened from time to time, and decided she couldn't be bothered trying to figure out what to wear when she found virtually all articles of clothing uncomfortable anyways, so, birthday suit plus a bandanna it was.

"See you tonight, dad." She said from the door just before leaving.

"Bye hun!" He said cheerfully from wherever he was in the kitchen

Though there was a bus route she could take, more and more she found she wanted to jog there. The sounds were more vivid, the sights of birds or other woodland creatures jumping about in the trees gave an exciting kick that woke her up more than coffee ever did. Each jog was enjoyed, and though it took three quarters of an hour, it was always over before she knew it.

She greeted the man who was on the day shift as he was getting ready to head out, the conversation consisted of the usual ‘heys’ and ‘see you laters’, business as usual. The night shift suited her, bit this job was starting to bore her. In order to keep herself sane, she tried several methods, from phone usage-too eye straining, listening to music-only made her favorite songs get boring, and finally, toying with the raccoons that would sneak on the compound to rummage through the trash. This last one was the most enjoyable, unfortunately the last time she’d done it, an incident that started with her throwing pebbles to cause random noises around them and ended with her leaping out from behind a nearby crate to scare them only lead to them starting stories that the area was haunted which scared everything away. As good as this development was for her employer it was terrible for her state of boredom.

This night was a special one, it was a Tuesday, that special day of the week where there was an ECP runner coming by to get a feel for how she was doing, and she intended to drag that out by roping him into another perimeter check, one she always took slowly, just to extend the welcome distraction.

“Hey! Finally!” She exclaimed as he showed up.

“Hi Lois.” Poncho said, trying to appear uninterested but always unable to contain his anticipation for his usual reward for keeping her company, even if he was always just doing his job of checking in. She motioned for him to walk with her while he started rummaging through his satchel, pulling out a clipboard once he'd found it.

“So, I’ve got a box to check saying you're still fine with the nighttime schedule?”

“Yeah, _that_ part’s fine.” She emphasized.

“Good… and another for the job itself?”

“Eh, honestly I’m getting really bored, I mean, there’s nothing to do. I don’t mind doing it alone but how long can you pace around the same building before you’re drained?”

“Yeah, I always had someone in my pack around and even then it got boring, but we just got used to it. I’ll check ‘wants something different’, could you jot down the reason? They don’t like my handwriting…”

“Yeah, pass it.” As she wrote, she started thinking and speaking about something else that had been on her mind, as boring as this job was, she had needed the time to reflect on things. “What was it like, living in the wild?”

“Uh, you could watch a documentary, I’m not sure what to say... It was simpler, I guess? Food and video games were worth the switch.”

“Okay, yeah, but like…” Lois paused, struggling to find the words to describe what she really wanted to know, it was impossible since she wasn’t even sure what that was. “What was it like when you got used to living like this?”

“I have no idea how to answer that.”

“Did you change?”

“I don’t know, I got more smarter-er.” Poncho said after pondering it for a while and deciding to use humor to cover his lack of a decent answer.

Lois laughed a little but sighed after, understanding that she was asking questions that were far too difficult for most people to answer on the spot. How would she answer what being a teen was like versus being a child? Was everything better or worse? Did she like the trade-offs? And here she was relying on someone whose life was completely different from hers to give answers.

“What’s being a cat like?” He asked, genuinely curious.

“Oh.” She thought for a second and realized how much she’d noticed her habits changing, and could answer that question very well, only she didn’t know how to do it simply and just listed off whatever came to mind. “I wanna nap all the time which is something I’m still fighting off. I get caught just watching anything that moves, like it’s a trance, you know? Veggies don’t taste that good anymore, but meat tastes better...”

“You sound like you’re enjoying some of it.”

“I... I don’t know.” She looked off into the forest beyond the fence for a second before thinking that she wanted to hear about him for a little while. “It’s your job to, but we’re always talking about me, how are you doing?”

He perked up at the attention. “Good. I feel better being out of the zoo. Going there wasn’t something I should have done." Contemplatively, he put a finger to his chin before remembering there was one oh so important part he'd left out. "I did get paid though, so it wasn’t all bad.”

“Duh, but how much would you need to get paid to hate where you are for ex hours out of the day?”

“I thought it was a good idea when I tried it, it wasn't so much for the pay.” Poncho looked off at some trees in the distance for a few seconds before turning back to her. “I was jumping at something I thought I wanted, but if I’d stopped and thought about it I would’ve known it was a bad idea.”

“You’re out now.” Lois said, gleaming that there was something about the topic making him uncomfortable and trying to move on from it.

“Yeah, this is much better, though a lot of the candidates are still uneasy around me.”

“Why is everyone so afraid of you guys when you sound so normal?”

“Normal?”

“I-” Lois had only said that catch-all because she wasn’t sure how to explain it. Playfully, she punched him on the shoulder. “You just... I don’t know, I like talking to you.” 

Poncho thanked her for the remark but went silent, leaving her to wonder if she’d said something wrong.

They walked silently for the remainder of the lap around the area.

“Thanks for chatting with me, even if you’re just here for this...” She said as her paws went right for his chin and started scratching away. This time, oddly, he slightly leaned away from her, but the second her paws touched him, his face melted into the same look it always did, like he would follow you until the end of time, and all it took was some chin rubs.

“I’ll see you next week!” He said hurriedly while jogging off.

_"~All by my selllff. Don't wanna be..." _ She started singing to herself in self-pity while trudging back to her station and sitting down in front of the radio.


	6. Do you remember?

Marion kicked his feet while the secretary jotted down some notes. The light shining through the half closed venetians on the window illuminated some floating specks of dust and dander, a welcome distraction from the nervous waiting. Being made to sit in an office while someone scribbled notes about him was never felt like it was a good thing, even though he knew this was purely a check-in. He signed as silently as he could manage, he didn’t want to seem annoying but he was also getting bored.

“Okay, all done. It’s good to hear that you’re doing well.” Sarah said, removing her reading glasses and smiling at him.

“Compared to when this started.” He said as a reminder.

“Yes… I suppose that will always be the case until it goes back to normal.” Sarah said sympathetically.

“What’s gonna happen if it never does?”

“On one side, you have the backing of an obscenely rich backing of ferrets that will drop ridiculous amounts of cash on a whim without thinking twice.”

“Let me leave on a high note.” He sighed before she could tell him about the other side.

“Of course, it’s all just old news anyways...” Suddenly she lowered her voice and leaned closer to him. “Hey, it’s a bit off topic, but we’re working on sneaking a vacation fund into the budget, come up with a list of places you want to go. It’ll be a group thing so we’ll have to find something everyone is okay with, we’re not supposed to tell you yet so don’t spread it around.”

“Hawaii.”

“You aren’t planning on trying to surf, are you?”

“I can dream!” He said while scampering to the door before any more drops of reality could hit him.

“See you next week! Tell Ben he’s next!”

Marion quickly left the office and went into the waiting room, signaling to Ben that she was ready, but stopping him first to comment on his attire.

“I have to ask…”

“No, I didn’t pick this outfit.” He said, annoyed.

“So…”

“I’m not talking about it.” He said as he waddled in, the Canadian flag on his back displaying in full view.

“His brother hid every other outfit he had.” Roan informed while flapping down from the chair he was perched on. “I used to want one, but now…” He trailed off as he looked to the office door. Roan's clothing was more normal, or as normal as a raven wearing clothes could be, a simple white undershirt that stretched over most of his body. Much as he wanted pants, his body shape just wouldn't allow it.

“Oh yeah, did you check if that café on the corner is ECP friendly? I forgot to ask Sarah.” Marion asked.

“Yeah, they got one of those signs too: ‘Collars or cards’. Did you want to invite anyone else?”

“Lois, you’re still coming, right?”

“-snrk-huh? Coffee?” She rubbed her head as she woke up, only wearing the collar that helped keep her from being identified as a feral and her usual red bandanna. “Yes, get me some damn caffeine.”

She pulled at the collar a little, clearly annoyed she had remembered to wear it this time.

“Actually I got one more who might want to come, I don’t think he’s busy.” Marion said while whipping out the new miniature phone he’d been supplied with. It was only capable of talking or texting, being so small not much more could fit in it. Marion shot a quick text over to William asking if he’d want to join them.

“Sorry, this place always makes me sleepy… How’s the camera work going?” She asked Roan after another yawn.

“They keep wanting me to go higher. I want to do it but it’s hard… it’s not even the heights, now I think ‘well, I got turned into a bird randomly, what happens if I change back while I’m a hundred feet in the air?’”

“Oh.” Marion said, his imagination running wild until he was turning back while inside a small pipe.

“One of the stories was that some woodland animals were touching people using cursed treasure. The Miltons are even saying this one is the case. If that’s it then no one’s gonna touch you again midair.” Lois said reassuringly.

“Unless it’s another bird.” Roan replied, cringing again at the thought of suddenly plummeting a hundred feet into a sidewalk.

“The theories are all insane though, another was that the Miltons had an animalization laser put on the moon.” Marion retorted.

“Which you believed.” Lois snarked.

“For like an hour, tops!”

“We got turned into animals, is there a theory that’s ‘too crazy’?” Roan said.

After the other two thought about it for a few moments, Lois said. "Well, that corgi named King we see sometimes was basically saying it could be wizards."

Marion came up with: “The one about us letting animals act too human so God was turning us into animals as punishment.”

“Again, guys, magically turned into animals.” Roan repeated.

“Hey God? Fuck you!” Lois said to the ceiling.

“Watch your language!” Sarah shouted from behind the door.

“Yeah!” Ben agreed in a purposefully nasally and obnoxious tone.

“You hath displeased our God.” Marion said while pointing to said door.

“Sorry Sarah!” Lois yelled apologetically.

“It’s alright!”

“See? She’s cool.”

Marion’s phone buzzed with a response. “Will says he’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“How long is Ben gonna be?” Lois asked.

“Depends on if he’s got stories to tell, which I know he does, could be a half hour more.” Roan answered.

“We could just go there now and wait.” Lois suggested.

“I’ll text him and say.”

As they started walking out they heard Ben yell after them from the door. “Can’t you guys wait like five minutes? I'll be quick.”

Ten minutes of waiting later and they were at their café, fifteen and they were at their table sipping coffees, lattes, and expressos that were specifically tailored to their species size, mostly using china that was designed for dolls originally. Some idle chatter occurred until William arrived.

“Hi. You’re Lois, right?” He asked. She noted how similar to Marion he looked, the main difference being his fur had more of a brown tinge to it.

“Yep, hi. Do you want a lift?” Lois offered, pointing to the section of the table that had smaller furniture on it and then extending her paw to him.

“No thanks.” Will said while climbing up the leg of the table that had a tiny ladder attached to it.

“See, this guy’s too smart for that trick.” Ben said. “You’d be snack number five if you said yes.”

“I get it. I’d probably hate it too…” Lois thought aloud.

“No, I appreciate the offer.” Will replied apologetically, his tone sounded like he wanted to add an explanation but he stopped short of it.

“How’s the nut life treating you?” Ben said.

“Alright, just trying to keep old habits up.”

“Yeah, I know that feeling, and beaver teeth suck so I’m stuck with a new one. I have to chew on this thing for like an hour every day.” Ben said while pulling a hardwood pole out of his backpack.

“The pole of unyielding!” Roan said dramatically, flapping his wings a few times for effect.

“I’ll test that on your head.” Ben replied, mockingly tapping it against his palm a few times before chuckling and putting it away.

“Wouldn’t it feel good to do that? You’ve got beaver instincts now so why not enjoy it if it’s necessary anyways.” Lois pointed out.

“I’m not sure I like that…” Ben said, somewhat out of his usual character.

“It’s not like any of us wanted to get stuck with this, I’m not about to start crapping on someone’s car.” Roan joked, taking the heat away from Ben.

“So, how are your new careers going?” Lois asked, wanting to get away from that sensitive topic. “Roan already told us, but what about you two?” She asked while pointing to Ben and Will.

“Same as Marion, I’m just on a different team. It’s weird, I know the things we look at aren’t that big really, but they’re massive to me.” Will said, looking up at the ceiling fan that was spinning above them.

“That’s what she said.” Ben blurted out.

“Well, Marion said the same thing to me, so…” Will said, continuing the joke.

“I’m not a girl!” Marion yelled.

“You kinda are, just, like a tomboy.” Lois giggled. “I guess it doesn’t matter, not like any of us are referred to by special pronouns just because we were turned into animals.”

“You might as well not get used to it since we’ll get turned back eventually.” Will said.

“Yeah, and if we do, we’ll look and feel like normal people of our species again, but right now, our bodies and brains are different, I don’t want to waste too much energy fighting it. Or until I get me another one of these anyways.” Lois said, shaking her iced coffee for emphasis.

“Yeah, I noticed your lack of...” Roan started to say before he trailed off and purposely coughed, pointing at her body.

“She has decided to become a nudist when she gets changed back, so she’s practicing.” Marion chimed.

“Fur covers enough, and clothes feel weird with fur, I don’t know how you guys are taking it.”

“Now if you could keep doing that when we get switched back…” Ben said while raising his eyebrows.

“Would you? Or are you worried everyone would stare at your fat ass?” Marion hit him back with.

“Beavers are supposed to be fat!”

“That’s what she said.“ Roan quickly jabbed in with.

“This was thin when I was human-“Ben started, goading everyone with that line before quickly and mockingly belting out ”thatswhatshesaid” before anyone else, especially Roan, could get the chance.

“I wasn’t gonna say it, lard ass.” Roan said.

“Yeah you were shuddup, you wannabe cock.”

“This wouldn’t be half as cute if every single one of you wasn’t under two feet tall.” Lois said tauntingly.

The baked goods they’d ordered came out at that moment, each of them took a break from talking to take their first few nibbles, Marion dipped his little scone in coffee before taking a taste, and Lois was finished immediately, gobbling her cupcake down in a couple bites. She raised the back of her paw up to her face and started to stick her tongue out at it, but looked around and put it back down on the table. While everyone else was still eating she sat quietly and staring out of one of the storefront windows.

Some more fun mindless conversation followed, but Marion had to notice that although Lois was watching and paying attention, she barely participated in it. ‘_Must be tired’_ he thought.

Eventually, Ben’s ride home showed up and he had to leave, Roan left at the same time, flying home, barely ten feet off of the ground. The squirrels were quite envious of his superior mode of naturally gifted transportation.

“Oh yeah, did you want to hang out at Tim’s this weekend?” Marion asked Will.

“Umm, I think my parents will be upset, they don’t like me staying outside too long anymore. They get really worried.”

“We could play online.”

“...I couldn’t get that special controller either, I’m pretty limited.”

“Oh, I could go to the store and get a spare.”

“Nah, we could just chat or something.”

“Sure.”

“Do you have the money to get it now? Hitch a ride on me. I don’t mind making the run.” Lois offered, having finished her coffee and starting to seem wired. “Just buy me another one of these and we’ll call it even.” She said while shaking her empty cup.

Will thought about it, worried that his parents would chide him over it, but then he thought ‘_screw that, I was eighteen before being a squirrel, I can buy a frigging controller with my own money’ _“Sure, yeah, let’s do it.”

“Okay, maybe ride in her backpack, holding onto her shoulder is NOT a good idea.” Marion said, already getting comfortable in it.

“You don’t have to go too fast.” Will suggested.

“I WANT to run.” Lois said intimidatingly, emphasizing the word to strike some terror into their poor little hearts before shooting off the second they were ready.

The specialty electronics store was reached in record time, the controller bought by a stammering, stuttering squirrel, and hearts braced for another breakneck gallop, but the steed decided to take it easy on them and limit herself to a brisk jog.

“Poke your heads out of there. I won’t go too fast this time. Enjoy the view why doncha?”

“I swear to god if you start running again.” Marion threatened.

“If it was just you, yeah, but I’ll be nice to your little friend here.” She said in a superior tone. After getting an annoyed glance in return she giggled. “Try riding on my shoulder. Don’t worry, I meant it when I said I’d go slow.”

“T-thank you.” Will said, terrified of her not keeping her word.

Lois kept her word, mostly. Any bumps in this ride were worth it for the experience of watching the environment pass by, it was freeing once they got over the fear of falling off. The warm early September air blew past their faces while they watched the businesses and then suburban homes pass by.

“Thanks for the ride, sorry again about yanking on your whiskers…”

“Just buy me some more coffee sometime.”

“You should have been a taxi instead of a night guard.” Marion joked before turning back to Will. “I’ll see you on Friday, just call me if you want anything.”

Will hugged him goodbye, Marion was surprised by this at first, but it was quick. “Thanks, I really needed to get out.”

“Bye.” Marion said after Will waved and started walking to his door.

“Your new friends are nice.” Lois said.

“Yeah. Hey, were you alright earlier? You got all quiet on us in the café.”

“We’re not dating anymore so you don’t have to worry about that.” She said with a smirk.

“Can I say okay or is this a test?”

“Just peg it to me being a cat, I like to just sit and watch sometimes.”

“You’re not just a cat you know…” Marion said, pulling his phone out to check a new notification. “Tim says his sister wanted you to come over on Saturday too. She probably wants another carnivore to hang around with that’s her size.”

“I like her and all, I’m just not sure I’m feeling it.”

“~Tell me where it hurts.” Marion sung, deliberately drawing attention to them from anyone passing by on the sidewalk.

“Stop! You’re right on my shoulder.” She hushed.

“~Forget about everybody else!”

“Oh my god, alright I’ll come.”

“~All I care about is you-“

“Stop or you’re walking home.”

“A’ight.”

Five minutes of a cold war of silence later and they were at Marion’s stop.

“I still love you, you little bastard.” Lois said while hugging him closely.

“I love you too, you big pussy.” Marion said softly before she let him go and he headed into his house.

“~I've been loved my whole life …” Lois sang to herself near silently as she started heading to work.


	7. Until I met you

On the way over to her shift, and one of her last on this specific job, Lois did what she usually did and fell into trances staring at anything that moved in the trees beyond the sidewalk. Normally her head would be mostly clear when she did this, but distracting thoughts kicked up by her earlier interactions today were at the forefront. In that cafe, she realized earlier that she had been changing, and all it took was seeing her group’s reflection in one of the large windows, what was staring back at her? An odd giant cat only wearing glasses, a collar, and a bandanna on her head hanging out with a bunch of rodents and a bird, all of whom were doing their best to keep dressing and acting as if they were still human. And who was right? Was it right for her to act a way that made her comfortable, only putting as much effort as she had to in order to appear presentable in public? Was it wrong for them to cling onto human behaviors that didn’t suit them anymore? What would this do to her if whatever curse that affected them wore off?

Though she was briefly uplifted when Poncho came around for his usual Wednesday visit, her thoughts stole the spotlight back soon enough. 

"Are you tired?" Poncho asked.

“I had too much caffeine earlier and now I’m paying for it.”

“Want me to get you a coffee?”

“Thanks, but it’s better if I just deal with it now, besides, what would I do with the energy? Do my patrol a little faster?” She chuckled ”But keep talking with me, it’s helping me stay up.”

There wasn't very much of interest that had happened in his life over the past week, but the life of his family was another story.

“Um, Jack almost got arrested today.”

“Theft again?”

“Nope, this time it was the unlicensed firearms that made it into his stock.”

“Where does he get this stuff?” Lois asked, mostly rhetorically.

“Theft.” Poncho immediately answered.

“I won’t say anything.” She said after giving a genuine laugh.

“And that’s why you’re still alive.” He replied with a diabolical tone.

“He didn’t drag you into any of it did he?”

“Not this time, no. And this is important advice... If he ever asks you for a favor just say no, doesn’t matter what it is he will find a way to get someone in trouble with it.”

The two shared another quick laugh before one of those awkward silences started, thankfully Lois thought of something else to talk about.

“Your nephews do alright in summer school?”

Now Poncho laughed. “How do you _think_ they did?”

“I could think like, really bad, or I could think that I’d surprise myself by being optimistic.” Lois joked.

“Well the first thought was the right one, Miles was always close to a stroke trying to help them with it. They did pass though.”

“That's good. You skipped on that whole system, didn’t you?”

“Yep, we had to teach ourselves how to read.” He said proudly.

“You ever think of trying to do something more? This ECP stuff might not last too much longer.”

“Sometimes...”

They walked in silence for another minute, and some of the questions Lois had in her mind from before popped up again. She waited until they finished the round, and then sat down with him on the bench outside of the security office.

“Do you think it’s okay that I feel alright like this? You know, with this body.” She said while pointing at herself.

“Like, as a bobcat?”

“Yeah. This is weird, I know it’s weird, but it feels normal now. Look at all this fur.” She said while spreading her arms out and staring down at her body, her speech getting faster. “I never had this but now I feel like it’s me. It shouldn’t feel normal, should it?” 

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Maybe not, everyone else just wants to go back to the way things used to be and I’m not sure what I want.” Lois sighed.

“Remember when you’d asked if I’d changed at all? I don’t think I did, there’s some new things you can do and some old things that you can’t, but I still feel like I’m the same wolf.”

“Hm...”

She stared off tiredly. Poncho could sense she was confused and felt he wanted to do something to cheer her up, and one thing tended to come to mind when he was around her.

The lynx bobbed up as she felt an insanely satisfying, relieving, and comforting feeling happening all at the same time. *Scritch scritch scritch* “A-are you? Oh that feels SO GOOOOD...” She said as she melted into his hand.

“See?!” He said excitedly.

He scratched her chin for another five minutes, slowly easing off to rubbing as she rested her head on his shoulder, relaxed into nearly passing out. “Thank you...” Returning the favor, she scratched his chin when he stopped, him giving that same silly dumbstruck look that he always gave. She stopped after her arm tired a few minutes later. “Good night Poncho.”

“D-don’t mention it.” He said, still trying to collect himself, once he had, he got up, said his usual goodbye, and started to leave.  
Before he got too far he turned around once, and the two of them stood there staring through the crisp night briefly into each other’s eyes before waving goodbye again.

She couldn’t focus on anything for the rest of her shift, not like there was much to focus on, but her mind was completely fixated on seeing him again, and she groaned the first time she realized that would be a week later. Over and over she wished it was tomorrow, then in an hour, then-OH, IDIOT... _why can’t I just visit him?_

The next day, she forced herself to wake a couple hours earlier than normal, and the first thing she did was call the number they had been given to contact him with directly.

“Hello? Poncho?”

“...Lois?” He asked. In the background she could hear someone ask ‘Lois? Who’s that?’, to which Poncho responded. “-she’s an ECP member... gimme a second here...”  
“Call her back!" The voice interrupted again "We’re in the middle of a game here!”  
“Hey, are you alright? You’ve never called me before.” Poncho finally said after a few seconds of shuffling.

She was quiet for a second, fighting with herself over saying what she wanted. It took a few seconds before she had the courage to respond.

“I'm good, I just wanted to see you, is it an okay time?”

“Really? Yeah sure!” Poncho quickly and cheerfully replied.  
"Oh it’s _that_ type of ECP member..." The other voice suddenly chimed in with. Given the grunting that followed it was clear it had snuck up on him and wasn't welcome.  
“-Get lost!”

_Well, they aren’t wrong_

“Where’s a good spot to meet up? I wanted to talk with you alone for a little while.”

“There’s some-I WILL TEAR OFF YOUR OTHER ARM!! Sorry...” More shuffling, a door slamming shut, and a few seconds of silence later... ”There’s a small forest near my house that has a trail running through it, and if you follow it there’s a large bench, that’s not too far for you, right?”

“I’ll be there in an hour.” She said. “Bye, Poncho.”

“That's great... Yeah, I’ll see you-JACK!!”

His place wasn’t that far from hers, but since she was walking, or more accurately jogging, it took her half an hour to get there. There was a small pathway that cut through it, and an old oak wooden bench for her to sit on. Poncho was there just a few minutes after she got there, a welcome surprise. They both stared at each other for a few seconds before, at the same time, saying ‘hey’.

“So, how are you doing?” He asked while sitting down next to her on the bench.

“Much better.” She said, looking away at the ground and blushing.

“Did you want me to scratch your chin again? It’s addictive, right?”

“Yes...”

She gazed at him for a second before looking away again, and at first, he thought maybe she wasn’t into the idea, but then she silently nodded and reached up to start scratching his chin as he scratched hers. Poncho closed his eyes and lost himself to the feeling, no matter how many times it happened, it was always one of the highlights of his day. He was slowly brought out of it as the scratching got slower until the paw doing it had stopped, and was merely holding itself on his chin. Slowly, his eyes opened to see Lois was much closer to him than when they’d started. After poncho recognized the longing gaze she was giving him, he couldn’t help as his face gave the same. Slowly, they each closed the last few inches remaining between each other, first pecking each other on the lips, then Poncho tilted his head sideways to kiss her deeply, each losing themselves to the burning instinctual rush and pressing their mouths together as close as they possibly could. They only stopped to catch their breath...

“C-can we do that more?” He blurted out first, nervously.

Lois laughed, trying her best to suppress it enough to avoid making Poncho feel any humiliation, since she was feeling almost as nervous as he was. “Yes... Umm, I’m busy tonight, but how about tomorrow night after my last shift we go on a little date?”

He lit up, only knowing what that was enough to know it meant spending more time together. “Sure! I’ve never been on one of those before though.”

“You've never gone on a date?”

“No, I’d like trying it with you but I’ve never done it before.”

“I guess you guys wouldn’t do that much would you?" She shrugged before continuing. "Well, you know what it is, right? What do you like to do? I’m still not sure which places I can go to, like this, you know? For that I mean.”

“One of my packmates knows a theater that’s usually pretty empty, he’s a dog, not a wolf but I don’t think they’ll care too much. Or walking around the park... Or the-no, I got kicked out of there.”

“Find us a place to grab something we can eat along the way and I’d love to walk in the park with you.” She said, pulling back and starting to leave, unable to take her eyes off him the entire time.

“Yes.” He quickly and somewhat mindlessly responded, standing there until she was completely out of sight, and even then unable to move for another few minutes.


	8. A walk in the park.

During her entire shift, Lois thought about her upcoming date as much as she would have guessed. The thought popped in and out of her head, and always dragged her right into a daydream, but only for a few moments before she remembered to do her patrol route or check in. Every time she questioned what she was feeling towards the wolf, the same questions came up, and always got the same answers.

Is the jacket I brought good enough?  
You wear literally nothing all the time.

Is it weird that I want to be with a wolf? It’s not really natural...  
You were turned into a cat, this situation threw ‘natural’ out of the car ten miles back.

Is this a good idea? I’m the only lynx around here, a lot of people know me, should I be dating a real wolf? In public?  
They already act like you’re going to freak out and maul them if they look at you wrong, dating an elephant couldn’t make this worse.

Even though she kept trying to push them out of her mind, those and other similar questions repeated throughout the evening, and once it got to the final hour before her shift ended, they only repeated more often. Trying to focus on what little active work she had to do was the only thing keeping her from freaking out.  
During yet another perimeter check, the telltale reminder on her phone came: her shift was up. Despite all the worries she had, once it was finally time she was so excited she had to stop herself from racing to her locker, only managing to keep herself limited to a slow jog. She quickly tore her locker open and hung up her security jacket, smiling giddily as she pulled out the dark-brown leather jacket she’d bought recently, the color complemented her fur tones perfectly. Now, while looking at herself in the small magnetic mirror the inside of her now-former locker door, she thought it was time to change up another thing, and slowly pulled off the red rag she always had tied around her head. The long, hair-like portion of fur on her head poured out, half of it hanging to the side of her head, and the rest flowing backwards nearly to her shoulder. She was too excited and nervous to say if it really looked better, but she liked it.

As she got to the exit, she hoped that Poncho would be a little late, wishing she could feel more ready, but the second she opened the door, she saw he was already waiting for her.

Poncho smiled wide enough to be easily seen for a mile the second he saw her come out. “Hi!”

“Did you just get here?” She said as she trotted up to greet him, worried she shouldn’t have bothered with her jacket since he was still only wearing his signature poncho.

“Uh, well I didn’t have much to do so I was waiting for a little while in case you got out early.”

“Aw, well that’s-” She was going to say sweet but suddenly she caught a strong scent in the air. “-hm, did you bring some fruit?”

“Oh, no, I uh, borrowed some of my packmates’ shampoo.” Internally he'd been having those same jittery thoughts as she was, and was bouncing between the shampoo being a good idea and a terrible idea.

“It smells nice, I like it.” The scent was a little feminine, and she always found his normal scent reassuring, but she figured the effort was important. “I’ll help you look for one just for yourself later if you want.”

“Thanks...” Poncho had been too nervous to look directly at her until that complement, he noticed her jacket, but now as he brought his eyes up to meet hers, he noticed everything else. “Your hair looks so beautiful...”

“Really? I wasn’t sure if I should just keep my rag on or maybe I should have combed it... Or got a decent hat, but I just wanted to try letting it out, you know?”

Poncho just nodded, his expression said enough that words weren’t needed anyways. He snapped himself out of it to tell her what the plans for the night were. “There’s a place that sells really good burgers near the park, they’re small too, bite sized, but they give you a bunch of them.”

“Oh, yeah! Hopkins’, right? I haven’t been there in years...” The memory of what she was the last time she was there kicked up a few feelings of melancholy, though those moments happened less often, they still did, and she knew likely would continue too for some time, but, she reminder herself, that wasn’t what tonight was about. “Let’s get going.”

The walk there felt like they were already in the park, at this time in the evening, the road was deserted, no cars passed by so the only interruptions were the soft distant sounds of a few night birds. The trees were well into their fall colors, soft and damp leaves lined the road and sidewalk, and the remaining humidity in the damp cool air cast a soft glow around the old-fashioned streetlights that led the way to their destination. Both of them tried to think about something to talk about, but the longer the silence went on, the more awkward it felt to try and break the ice, and the walk there was enjoyable even with the quiet, both of them managed to lose themselves into it a few times.

Hopkin’s was still busy, it was petering off so the wait wasn’t too long, the odd pets that were in the line with them kept the pair from looking too out of place, something they welcomed.

“We’ll take four number threes, with cokes.” Poncho ordered.

“You two are pretty big for pets...” The cashier said after ringing the order in and handing them their number.

“We have money, do you care?” Lois said as she and poncho paid for their respective parts of the order.

“Meh…” He replied before the two turned and walked off.

They kept mostly out of sight until their order came up, quickly exchanging their number for their four bags of burgers with an intoxicating aroma and then speed-walking off down the nearby park path towards the pond in the center.

“Did you usually get problems? I can always pull out the ECP card, but that’s kind of new.” Lois asked as they walked around to find the bench with the nicest view.

“Sometimes, but toss money at them and they tend not to care who it came from. Well, so long as it’s clean.” Poncho replied, staving off the urge to start pulling his food out of the bag and shove it down his throat.

“Oh, here, this looks nice.” Lois said, pointing at an empty bench.

The bench faced right out onto a body of water so calm it almost looked like glass, perfectly reflecting the glowing orbs of the ornate park lights on the other side, where odd joggers and pets could be seen moving along the other paths. Both of them were starving at this point, made ravenous by the strong scent coming off those hot juicy burgers, and the second they sat down and put the bag down between them, their instincts took over and they scarfed down every bit of their orders in record time. Lois would have been ashamed to put on such a display in front of a date, emphasis on the ‘would have’, if he weren’t doing the exact same thing.

“Those tasted even better than I remembered...” She said, rubbing her stomach and licking the remaining bits of food off her lips, washing it down with a sip of her soda.

“See, this stuff makes everything worth it no matter what, humans have the best food ever.” Poncho excitedly stated after doing the same.

“Yep, good burgers...” Lois repeated, trying to think of something else to say. “So, what did you do today?” She said while covertly scooting a little closer to him.

“It was my day off, so I was mostly playing video games.” He quickly replied, also scooting a little closer. “You?”

“The usual security stuff, the same, you know?”

“The weather’s nice, right?”

“It’s cozy, even though it’s kinda cold, and damp.” She replied as she got close enough so their shoulders were touching.

“Did you want to keep chatting?” Poncho asked, less because he actually did and more out of a nervous blab.

“I guess, uh, your house must be loud, with all your family living under the same roof.”

“We never had the house before, but we always lived like that, why don’t humans?”

“Some do, but you’re just expected to move out on your own after a while. But uh, felines are solitary too so I don’t think that’s changed…” Lois said, getting caught up in thinking about this topic.

“Wouldn’t you want to stay with them?”

“Yeah, but don’t you want privacy? Like, more than just being in your room alone, it’s freeing to have a place to yourself.”

“Everyone around here has their dates or pets living with them anyways, so why move out? Your house is huge.”

“Okay, say it’s your parent’s home, they can do what they want with it since they own it, but when you have your own, you get that privilege. Paint it, put tacky things you like in your yard, only let in whoever you like, like that.”

“We can do that in our own rooms, and neighbors just complain when we put what we want in our yard.”

“I’ve heard the tales of what goes on there, you guys are just a troupe of public menaces.” Lois said teasingly while putting a paw under his clothes and caressing his stomach.

Poncho tried to think of a response, but his brain was quickly turning to mush, so he did the one thing he could think of and let their mouths continue the activity they’d started earlier that day. This time, when their lips locked their tongues pressed together. The wolf’s larger one lapped itself all over the feline’s, who’s fleshy barb covered tongue tickled his whenever she licked back, each tasted the last remaining drops of cola in each other’s mouth, but it didn’t take long for them to finish it all. They didn’t stop after taking breaks to catch their breath, only kept going at it until, after twenty minutes, they began to run out of steam.

Though their mouths had stopped, their hands were still going, rubbing each other’s stomachs, this caused an issue, that being the more one rubbed, the less the other could focus enough to reciprocate. So Lois decided to have her fun turning Poncho into putty first…

“Who’s a good boy?” She laughed as he relaxed and started sinking.

“I’m n-not a d-doooo-guh… Oh j-just don’t stop!” Poncho stammered out as he melted into the bench, so low he only barely managed to stay on it.

“Come on! Who’s a good boyyyy?” Lois repeated, now rubbing him furiously with both paws.

“I’m not saying iiiiit!” He practically whined.

Suddenly, she stopped. “Whew, I need a break…”

“Now it’s my turn!” Poncho replied with a hammy heroic tone, putting both his large paws on her stomach and going to town.

“Ooooohhh!!” She moaned, too overwhelmed by the sudden assault to even keep her balance, leaning backwards until she was lying down on the bench, with Poncho leaning overtop her, mercilessly rubbing her stomach into oblivion.

Like her, he could only keep this up for so long, and ran out of energy a few minutes later, but instead of stopping, he slowed his pace down to a gentle massage. Lois opened her eyes to meet his infatuated gaze, and he leaned in to start kissing her again, it didn’t take long for the heat inside their bodies to build up more than ever before.

“Wait…” Lois said as she pulled out of the kiss after feeling that Poncho was removing his outfit.

“Don’t you want to keep going?” He asked, not sure what the issue was.

“W-well, yes, but maybe not in the middle of a public park…” She pleaded, half regretting that her brain had managed to remind her of this fact.

“Oh…” Poncho looked around before remembering. “Yep, definitely.” He said as he moved back into a sitting position and helped Lois do the same.

There were only two things she could think, the first was that she wished he hadn’t stopped, and the second was yelling at the first thought for being so stupid. It took a few moments of silence before she could calm down enough to come up with a better idea.

“I want to keep going, just not right here.” She nearly whispered to him, leaning against him and putting her hand on his chest, which made him perk up again. “I've got to be home soon and I'm busy for the next couple nights, but on Sunday I’ll say the ECP wants to do some tests and keep an eye on me overnight or something, they won’t ask about it..." Her tone shifted to a more seductive whisper "Then we can have the whole night to ourselves…”

“Do you want to stay at my house? I have my own room, it’s got a lock and everything.” He suggested, some of his nervousness returned but he was mostly just excited.

“Yes, I’ll stay with you all night long…”

Lois started to get up to leave, and stretched a little once she was on her feet. Poncho, however, didn’t want to get up just yet, between what the two had been doing and the stretching the lithe and muscular, yet feminine body did in front of him, he found he would be quite exposed in a way his clothes couldn’t hide if he did.

“Oh!” Lois said as she noticed the bulge, her face flushing with a mixture of surprise and embarrassment.

“Could you wait a few minutes?” He asked, trying not to draw attention to it.

“Yeah, oh, sorry about that.” She said reassuringly as she sat back down, fighting the urge to playfully tease him.

A minute of awkward silence later and Poncho slowly rose, confident he could move without appearing obscene.

They mostly kept silent for the walk to Lois’s house, this time, they stayed that way only to appreciate the moment they were sharing together, holding paws tenderly until they got close. A chilly breeze rustled through the trees and fallen leaves occasionally, encouraging them to get a little closer…

“Thank you for taking me out tonight.” Starting to lightly pull away from their paw-hold.

“I can’t wait to see you again.” Poncho said, giving her one last tender squeeze before letting go.

Before he turned to leave, Lois couldn’t help one last impulse that popped into her mind. Quickly, she turned around, flicking her ears and scanning the windows on her house, checking just in case someone was awake and watching, before turning back around and giving him one last kiss goodnight. Silently, she backed away and carefully opened her front door while waving goodbye, never losing his gaze until the door was closed again. Still fluttering, she quickly yet noiselessly snuck up to the window in her upstairs room and opened it.

The wolf turned back a few times, watching her illuminated curtains wave in the wind, mimicking the silhouette of the girl waving him away.


	9. Mismatched

The squirrel in the mirror smiled after rinsing out the toothpaste left in his mouth, buck teeth sparkling. He hopped down from the sink and made his way back into the room he was staying the night in, where the idea of ‘one last episode’ was reigning supreme, only to soon be defeated by the fact that they were actually on the last episode.

“About time.” Tim said from his reclined position on his bed, feigning impatience as he was on his laptop and barely even paying attention to whatever was playing on the TV.

“Where’d Lois run off to?” Marion asked. "I forgot to tell her something."

“Oh, bed. She’s up in my sister’s room. Dunno if they’re still awake.”

“I think I heard them having a slow motion pillow fight.” Will said.

“That jaguar’s still my sister dude, I don’t need that image in my head.” Tim groaned. “Also do you want to watch two cats doing that? You sick fuck.”

"I'm not the one committing beastiality on myself several times a night, I can't imagine the things that laptop has seen." Will shot back with a slap-worthy grin on his face.

"Alright, it's clear you two need more alone time, so I'll give you like five minutes." Marion said while heading over to Karen's room, seeing that there was still a light shining under the door, which was slightly ajar.

"Sweet, I'll get the lube." Tim said before he was out of ear shot.

Marion heard some muffled chatting and the noise from a television in the background, so he slowly pushed open the door; a very dangerous move in hindsight but he was lucky and didn't see anything they cared enough about to chuck something at him. Barely. Karen was sitting between the doorway and Lois, her arms moving like she was tying something, both were startled when he announced his presence.

"Hey? Lois?"

"Don't you knock?!" Karen snarled.

"You have never knocked once on Tim's door every time I've been here." He replied plainly.

"...True." She sighed and turned back around.

"What is it?" Lois said as she popped up from behind Karen. It was now clear what the two had been doing, since Lois's hair had been brushed to the one side, the back tied into a short pony tail.

"You're doing your hair? You never do your hair." Marion asked, surprised.

_"Karen's_ doing my hair, I'm just watching TV." She answered while playing with her new do.

"I miss my fucking hair so goddamn much. Why couldn't I keep it? It's like I'm bald..." She groaned wistfully before turning her head back to Marion and pleading "Don't tell Tim, he gives me enough shit for my makeup."

Marion was tempted to say that she'd earned said shit, but wasn't keen on pushing the jaguar after her earlier snarl.

"It looks good. Anyways, could you give me a ride home tomorrow? My mom texted me saying she was gonna be out until late."

"Yeah, no problem." She answered.

"Alright, see you tomorrow..."

"Close the door." Karen asked.

"How?" Marion replied.

"Oh, right." She said while walking up to it and closing it for him once he was clear.

Marion started back and stopped dead just a few feet away from Tim's room the second he noticed the giant dog staring at him from the stairway. Well, giant to him, a normal border collie to everyone else. It was already panting in excitement, a state Marion had seen the dog in just once before, and hadn't wanted to see ever again.

"Farley, no. It's Marion. Remember?" The poor squirrel pleaded.

Overhearing this from his room, Tim could be heard getting off his bed and grabbing something that was making a couple metallic clacking noises while starting to say commands. "Farley! You get back downstairs _right_ _now!_"

The dog clearly wasn't listening and took a step away from the stairwell and closer to Marion, who wasn't sure if diving into Tim's room was a good idea or if it would just set Farley off. 

"Farley..." Marion growled, trying to sound more authoritative, it didn't seem to do anything.

Just as the dog seemed to lurch forward, suddenly Tim popped out of his room carrying an electric airsoft submachine gun that was comically oversized for a fox to be wielding and started blasting away.

"OW OW OW OW!!" The dog shouted frantically as the weapon's barrage pelted him, nearly every shot somehow nailing the back of his head as he raced downstairs and hid somewhere. "I'm telling mom and dad when they get home tomorrow!!"

"It's your own fault! You never listen and if you didn't start ignoring the water gun I wouldn't have to use _THIS!!_" Tim barked, spraying another burst at one of the couches below.

"You're still not supposed to!!" Farley yelled back with a juvenile tone.

"IS FARLEY CHASING GUESTS AGAIN!?!" Karen roared from her room, despite the door being closed it bellowed through the house, scolding every last speck of life no matter how dark the corner it was hiding in.

"Sorry..." Farley whined from wherever he was.

“We made more popcorn.” Will said while shaking the bag next to him on the bed, not quite sure how to react to whatever spat occurred outside of the room he was in.

"He probably smelt it and was gonna ask for some." The heavily armed fox said while pushing the door shut. "Otherwise he knows he's not supposed to be up here. Wouldn't be a problem if he would stop trying to chase people."

“It's alright, that's probably not going to be the last time I get lunged at by a dog." Marion sighed, sitting down on the pillow next to Will.

"You want some?" Will asked while raising the piece he was munching on.

"I just brushed my teeth.” Marion groaned, clearly having trouble fighting the snack's aroma.

“Just rinse your mouth before sleeping if you don’t wanna do it again.” Tim suggested while climbing back up to his bed, his paw grabbing at his own personal bowl of the puffy snack. "Tell me if you want to though, I'll keep watch in case that mutt tries anything again." He said through a mouthful.

"Does he try anything with you anymore?" Will asked.

"No, it's just you guys, other than that we're mostly back to normal..." Tim flipped the safety of his fake gun back on and put it back under his pillow. "We watching the finale or what?"

“Screw it.” Marion said while snatching a piece of popcorn up and munching on it. "Play that shit." He commanded.

Ten minutes in and Tim was passed out completely, Marion and Will finished it but were starting to dodge in and out towards the end. 

“So what are we doing tomorrow? I could stay out for like the whole day so long as I’m back by night.” Will said.

“You wanna hang out at my place?” Marion offered. “My mom learned to make these wicked peanut butter bars.”

“Your mom is awesome.” Will replied, jealous.

“Did your parents chill out? You said you had to beg them just for tonight.”

“Yeah.” Will said, looking down for a moment. “They didn’t actually let me, I just didn’t tell them where I was going.”

“Why? Do they hate Tim or something?”

“No, they just keep seeing this stupid little squirrel that they have to keep on lockdown until he turns back into their normal son again.”

“Half of the neighborhood pets barely restrain themselves from chasing us, I don’t blame them.” Marion said while looking back to the door and shuddering.

“It’s more than that, they don’t even like me hanging out with you guys, any of you, yet when my human-“ Will stopped and half-chuckled. “-man, it’s weird saying that word like this, but you know what I mean. When those come over, they go on and on about being careful with me and all that.”

“When you come over tomorrow my mom probably won’t ask, so stay as long as you want.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m glad I’m not alone in it." Marion said before catching himself. "No, sorry, not like I’m glad it happened to you, it sucks and I just want my old body back. But you all make me feel like it's not so bad.” He said while looking over and staring into Will's eyes.

“I know, right?” Will said, losing himself in the moment and leaning right up to Marion’s face.

“Uh, yeah...” Marion said, backing away slightly, a little unnerved.

“Sorry.” Will said nervously while backing off, which only made what Marion thought he was doing look more obvious.

Marion’s tail flicked nervously, he tried to focus on the still-rolling credits, but it was obvious from the looks he kept shooting at the squirrel sitting next to him that something else was on his mind. “I’m a guy… I didn’t want to be turned into a girl.”

“I know, but I just don’t see it like that. Do you want to? Just try it? Only if you want, but I’d like to.”

Marion recoiled a little more. “Do we really want this?” He asked.

“I didn’t want it until I got to know you.” Will said before thinking about it further, then shaking his head. “No, we shouldn’t, I mean, I wasn’t gay before so what happens when we get changed back?”

“Yeah, neither was I. That would get really awkward!” Marion laughed.

The next night at Marion’s home started off innocently enough after Lois dropped them off, free of charge this time. His mother had made them some special snacks before hopping on her laptop and mindlessly chipping away at whatever work project was stealing her free time, and all the two left in the house had planned to do was the same as the previous night, that being play games, watch something, and gorge themselves on junk food. The conversation from the previous night, however, was still on their minds, and more than anything they had been waiting for a private moment to continue it.

“What happens when we turn back?” Marion asked.

“If we can’t, that’s fine, things will go back to normal. You said your old girlfriend and you are still friends, right? I can do that.” Will answered.

“Yeah, but are you sure?” His shoulders drooped, still completely confused over what he even wanted.

“Do you want to, you know, uh… kiss? If you hate it then we’ll know it won’t go anywhere.” Will asked.

“...Okay.” Marion answered after a long, thoughtful pause.

The two slowly got closer, each looked like they would back out of it at any moment, but they kept going until their lips met. Both were more surprised than anything and pulled back immediately. Neither of them had kissed anyone like this yet and had forgotten that with the snouts they now had, it would have to go differently than whatever they'd done as humans. This time, they both were sure they wanted to keep going, but still had trouble figuring out how. Marion got the idea to tilt his head so their noses wouldn’t bump again, but Will, who had the same idea, mirrored him completely, they switched back and forth, each starting to giggle at their frustration.

“Hang on.” Marion said as he grabbed Will’s face and tilted it so they could finally kiss. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was long enough for them to figure out if they were sure or not.

“Maybe I c-could do this.” Marion said, blushing and looking away, his tail flicking like crazy.

“Wanna keep doing it?” Will asked, bashful, his tail doing the same.

“Why don’t we pick out something nice to watch first? Only now, you’ll sit with me on my pillow...” Marion asked, hamming up his seductive tone.

“I’d like that.”

What they picked barely mattered, once the snacks were ready, the movie was on, and the action had started, the two were rubbing their paws all over each other and making out every few minutes, they only managed to watch half of it, and forgot the rest. Even though both of them wanted to be together that night, Will thought it best to go home and deal with whatever screaming his parents were going to do at him, something the pile of texts on his small phone were already giving him a taste of.

“When do you want to do this again?” Will asked.

“We could hang out a bit this week, but come this Friday, why don’t you stay the night?” Marion offered, insinuating much after the first part of that sentence.

“My parents will literally have to lock me up to stop me.” The tone of Will's voice suggested he welcomed that challenge.

“Try to avoid provoking them until then, eh?”

“Seriously though, I’m coming here with you after work on Friday, I don’t even want to chance them trying something ridiculous. I don’t care if they buy the ‘ECP wants to run some tests’ excuse or not.”

“Okay, Tim’s probably gonna invite us over again, so we could hang out with him a bit first.”

“I’ll see you then.” He said happily before giving Marion one last kiss and trotting off.


	10. Mary

The two squirrels started to appear jittery as Marion's mother drove them home. Will's parents didn't get the chance to disapprove about him spending the night there, since like the previous weekend, he didn't tell them. Marion was glad that linking with Tim's parents was one of those things his mother tacked onto her 'to-do' list and promptly forgot about. After thanking her for the ride, they disappeared upstairs. Though the entire reason they were together this night was what they were about to do, they were still as nervous as they'd ever been, and everything they did while waiting for Marion's mother to leave for one of her business trips felt like it was going through some sort of token motions to kill time.

“Do you want me to treat you like a girl? I know this is weird for you.” Will asked, the two kneeling down across from each other on Marion's bed.

“Yeah, just go slow, I might as well be a virgin…” Marion said, feeling incredibly exposed as he laid back and spread his legs open.

“Oh.” Will said, tuning out a little. “What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should cuddle for a little?”

“Yeah, I’m… yeah.” He said while crawling up next to Marion and putting his arms around him.

The cuddling, of course, led to other things. Their paws started drifting to areas lower down, softly rubbing at what they found there. Marion was surprised when he felt Will’s penis start to grow out of the tuft of fur it was hiding in, having temporarily forgotten the gender of who he was doing this with. Will was emboldened by the blood that was starting to pump to areas of his body other than his brain, and moved on to prodding one of his tiny fingers at Marion’s lower lips. They went on like this for about five minutes, steadily getting more confidence from the feelings of pleasure that started to come. Will’s penis was now fully erect and Marion was carefully stroking it, the latter’s own sex feeling slick and ready to go further from the massage it was getting.

“I’m going to put it in…” Will said while shifting around so he was on top.

Marion nodded, trying to hide how incredibly nervous he was about this, his body shivered noticeably as the tip went inside him. It didn’t feel much different from the fingers that were in there a moment before, but knowing what it really was made him feel like his mind was exploding into an entirely new level of tension. Will wasn’t doing much better, as he slowly slunk his way in, his heart felt as if it was about to jump through his throat. Both had felt this sort of nervousness before, and had hoped never to feel it again, but like Marion had said earlier, they might as well have been virgins. Will finished sliding all the way inside, and Marion moaned when he did, the little bit of encouragement making him feel more comfortable with the moment.

“It feels good.” Marion whispered, trying to alleviate both of their nerves. “Keep going…”

Will started pulling out and pushing back in over the course of the next few minutes, starting to speed up by the end of it, yet still holding back. For most of this time, he’d kept his eyes closed and tried to focus on the sensations, the warm tightness of what he was inside, and the softness of the arms that were holding onto his waist, but it still felt like this wasn’t the closeness he wanted it to be. “Marion, let’s take a small break, okay?”

“Yeah s-sure.” Marion signed, wound up from the pleasure but still unable to let go of the feelings they had when this started.

“It’s like something’s off…”

“We’re both humans, something is off.” Marion sighed.

“How could we fuck when we’re this stressed out?” Will laughed.

“Eh, let’s just keep trying...” Marion said reassuringly as he put his arms around Will again and started moving around him until they were face to face. Will raised his own hands up, first putting them on the arms that were rubbing his sides and then shifted them over to Marion’s sides as he got closer. The two paused for a moment, understanding that neither of them was going to judge the other for whatever happened next, yet still somehow terrified. Will raised one of his hands up to Marion’s cheek and started leaning in towards his face, Marion did likewise, closing in until their lips met again. While this happened, Marion shuffled his body even closer until he was straddling Will, his still-stiff member brushing against Marion’s vagina, some of the juices leaking out and slathering it. Without breaking the kiss for more than a moment, Marion lifted himself up slightly and angled Will’s penis upwards, moaning as he sunk down onto it while Will put a hand behind his head and pulled him further onto their kiss. Marion had to stop and breathe heavily when he had gone as low as he could, now having Will’s entire length inside him, trying to adjust to a feeling that was still so new.

After a few moments, Marion started to slowly bounce up and down, and Will moved both of his hands to Marion’s hips, then reaching down further and groping his butt. Both tried to match the movements of the other, when Marion bounced up again, Will tried to pull out a bit and then thrust back in when Marion came back down, but it took them several minutes to start getting it right. Will would pull out too far and slip out completely, or their tempos wouldn’t match and their genitals wouldn’t actually move enough. Since the initial nervousness was fading, they chuckled whenever it happened, simply trying again and again until they started to get it right. The pleasure was well worth all the effort, now for the first time neither of them minded what they'd been turned into, even if that feeling wouldn't last forever.

Once they had their timing right, Will could only last a minute, quickly feeling the pressure inside him build up until he was unable to stave off from releasing it for another second.

“Marion… I’m about to…”

“Fuck yeah… do it…”

Will held Marion right down on his crotch and let himself go, cumming inside him so hard he felt as if he couldn’t breathe until his balls were finished emptying themselves, even after he was limited to shorter breaths. Once he felt the male below releasing his seed inside him, Marion felt this sense of relief and warm pleasure emanate from his core, the last few spurts from his mate still shooting into him. For about a minute all they could do was pant, in both exhaustion and satisfaction.

“Will, I think I love you.”

“Yeah… I love you too.” Will said as he reached up and pulled Marion’s head down for another deep kiss, leaning back until he was lying on the bed. Playfully, they wrestled a little, rolling around, still connected at the crotch and mouth, one getting on top of the other and pressing them into the bed.

They had lost track of the time they spent playing in this way, but eventually they snapped out of it and decided cleaning off would be a good idea. Each took their turn to get into the makeshift shower that had been installed in the bathroom sink closest to Marion’s room. Once they were clean, some snacks were grabbed, and they picked out a movie to watch together. Whatever it was, they only watched a few scenes, snuggling the entire way through it, almost like the previous weekend, but this time not an article of clothing remained on for the rest of the night.


	11. Ferals

Since Lois hadn't started her new job yet Poncho had come to pick her up from her house directly. She'd texted him saying to wait nearby. Even though, if they'd caught the two leaving together she had several excuses she'd come up with, she didn't want to test if her parents still had the ability to catch her in those sorts of lies. Once she rounded the corner she'd told him about, they were almost face to face. The two immediately crossed the foot or so between them, wrapped their arms around one another, and kissed, so eager to get even closer. The entire jog to his home was filled with little moments of them grabbing at each other. Poncho stopped her as they finally got to his doorstep.

“Okay, some of them are sleeping but some are still up, so try to stay quiet...” He whispered.

“Jack’s gonna tease you about it?”

“Yep, I just don’t want that to start now...” He said as he tenderly caressed her stomach, she giggled, and then their lips were sealed and they snuck inside. Poncho slowly and very carefully opened the door, closing it behind them with even more care, a virtually muted clicking of the door lock the only audible marker to their presence. As they tip-toed into the kitchen they slowly snuck around the counter, Poncho signaled that his room was right there around the corner, and then they both noticed, or more were alerted to the presence of, another wolf that had been getting some sort of drink in the middle of the night.

“Just walk in normally, everyone’s gonna smell you anyways." She said, loud enough to make them jump but low enough not to notify anyone not in the immediate area. "I’m Elaine, by the way.” 

“H-hi, I’m Lois.” Lois whispered, still hunched over.

“Oh, so that’s her, she is adorable...” Elaine said while leaning over the kitchen's island and resting her chin onto her hand, smiling in an almost taunting manner at the two.

“Elaine, quit it.” Poncho said as loudly as he could while maintaining a whisper.

“Calm down, I won’t say anything, not like everyone won’t figure it out on their own... Have a fun night.”

Poncho took her advice and just walked to his room normally, Lois followed and Poncho gave one last look out into the hallway before closing it behind them. Neither noticed, but a couple pairs of eyes had followed him, of course, they knew better than to let him know that anytime soon.

The second it was shut he practically dove on her, his arms wrapped around her while his mouth pressed to hers, they slowly made their way towards his bed, exchanging saliva the entire way. When they got there, she was backed into it, slowly falling onto the mattress as they continued right where Lois had stopped him on their date. He pulled his trademark garment over his head and tossed it aside, and now for the first time, she saw his red, pointy member poking out of its sheath, with her face blushing harder than it ever had before, that, and how large the scar across his side and midsection she'd caught glimpses of before actually was.

She didn’t get much time to gawk as he locked lips with her again. The wolf reached down a hand to grab the lower part of her thigh and start moving her up further onto the bed, and once they were both at the center of it, he started rubbing her entrance with his finger, though she appreciated the attention, she was already wetter than she needed to be and had been since they were at his front door. To speed things up, she reached down and pulled his hand away, then slowly moving her arm up and tugging at his side, urging him to push forward. He did, his tip entering her slick entrance, thin enough for this first inch to be anything but painful, which it made her only want more inside her. She raised her legs up, slowly starting to rub her knees them around his waist, and he got the message, though perhaps a tad too clearly. He quickly jammed most of himself inside her in one stroke. Through the kiss, she groaned in some pleasure, but mostly pain. Poncho stopped right there and gave her a second to adjust, not as much as she would have liked, but it helped. Even though she wasn’t ready, he started going again, slower this time so as not to hurt her further. A few inches out, and then back in, slowly, then faster and faster until they were fucking in earnest, the pain now virtually gone. She resisted the urge to moan as loud as she wanted to, still remembering the shared home they were screwing in.

Poncho didn’t have any complex thoughts in his mind about this moment, about finally indulging in his attraction to another species, or having someone he felt real a connection with, he was just letting his body do what it wanted to do. His arms clutched her as close as he could, holding her in place so he could keep pumping into her as hard as he wanted to, and now that all she was doing was barely holding back moans of pleasure, there was no reason for him to hold back. Though he felt he had the energy to fuck like this for hours, between how pent up he was from the previous night and how perfectly tight his partner was, it only maybe went on for five minutes. Five minutes of pounding her right into the bed. Five minutes of them rebounding off of it, almost getting airborne. Five minutes of intimacy he’d never felt before, only to be surpassed by what came next. The knot at the base of his shaft began to swell, and his instincts told him to bury it deep. He thrusted inside her as hard as he could, breathing heavily but stopping himself from groaning loudly in the way he wanted to.

With the knot inside and quickly inflating to a level where pulling out would be impossible, the feeling edged on pain, but the pleasure of being filled like that was incomparable. Warmth spread throughout Lois’s body as she squeezed her hips around his waist as tightly as she could, doing the same with her arms, unable to stop her nails from poking out and digging into her mate’s back as he gave her a few last weak pumps, almost completely locked in place.

Despite their motions stopping, their breathing was still as intense as it was before. Slowly, Poncho rolled onto his side so both of them were lying down comfortably. Lois nuzzled closely to his chest while Poncho stroked the back of her head, each listening to the other breathe softly, still tied together. Without noticing it at first, she had started to knead Poncho’s chest with her paws, purring in a way she hadn’t heard herself do before. Poncho played along and jokingly tried to copy her by doing a light, rumbling growl, each of them tenderly giggled at the attempt before slowly drifting off to sleep...


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a simple little epilogue.

Warm light streaked its way across the blue-sheeted bed, moving further along until it finally reached the face of the pair of squirrels sleeping peacefully in the center. The brightness signaled Marion’s sleeping body that it was time to get up, he yawned and scratched his chin a few times, and started to get up but was held back by the arm still draped over his stomach.

“Hmmm?” Will yawned, stirred by Marion’s movements.

“Mornin’” Marion whispered as he slowly leaned back down, putting his arms back around Will.

“I wish I could live here...” He said quietly.

“Yeah...” Marion replied, giving him a tight squeeze before getting up.

Separately, they did their usual morning routines, showered, brushed their teeth, and headed to the kitchen to grab something to munch on. It was quiet, though they had the previous night on their mind it didn’t feel as if it had changed anything besides making them closer. They still loathed having to scale the equivalent of a small building to get anything in this human-sized world, they still hated how dependent they were on rides to get most places, and they still hated that they had to see an animal every time they looked in the mirror even if they managed to forget that it wasn’t normal sometimes. But, having someone this close to share it with made it seem a little better.

The last part of their routines had seemed more important after the change, but over time had declined back to being a mindless habit again: Flipping on the TV and checking the news.

“Still no magic cures...” Marion said.

“I still hope we get turned back, but it’s been months, I think we’re just stuck...”

Sighing, Marion changed the channel to something else.

“Maybe. If there’s a cure I’m taking it first so I can call you gay.”

Will burst out laughing. “You’re either gay right now or a tranny, which one?”

“Both, fag.” Marion said while leaning over to kiss him.

"So what do you wanna do today?"

"Chill." Marion said while sitting back into the couch.

"Sounds good to me..." Will replied, leaning back into the couch and holding Marion close.

...

Little light illuminated this bedroom in the wolf house, the curtains had been drawn and were blocking out most of what the sun was throwing their way. The wake up call to the occupants of this room was a little more jarring than it would have been if the sun had been allowed to do it’s job. A loud series of knocks roused the wolf and the bobcat that had been sleeping peacefully on top of him.

“What is it?” Poncho called after snapping awake.

“Luc’s making breakfast soon, you good with scrambled eggs?”

“Yeah.” He replied, and was about to ask Lois what she wanted but the voice at the door took great pleasure in doing it first.

“What about your girlfriend?”

Poncho flinched.

“It’s fine, I knew what I was getting into the second I got here.” Lois said as she kissed him on the nose. “Scrambled eggs are good! Thanks!”

Poncho reached over and pulled her into another kiss. While tickling and grabbing at each other, they slowly got out of bed, only to notice some crusty patches of fur in certain areas.

“We need a shower...” Lois said in embarrassment.

“The closest bathroom is just to the left so we won’t have to run through the kitchen...” He said as he opened the door and poked his head out. “Coast is clear.”

The two of them quickly darted in, turning on the shower and hopping in. It took some heavy scrubbing, but they managed to get it all out. The hardest part was avoiding going at it again while they were in there, scrubbing each other’s bodies clean gave them nearly unstoppable temptations to get dirty. They had tried to be in and out as quickly as they could, even so, while they were still toweling off there was a knock on the door. “It’s ready you two.”

“We’ll be right out.” Poncho said loudly through the door. “They’re about to tease us both to death.” He warned.

“Let ‘em. I’m gonna have to get to know them sooner or later...” She said while grabbing his shoulders and rubbing them reassuringly.

It went as expected, lots of cheeky smirks were thrown Poncho’s way, but besides that it seemed like a normal breakfast, or at least as normal as breakfast in a house filled with wolves could be. Lois got the easier treatment, Elaine simply struck up almost normal conversations with her, asking about what she did, how they met, and as Lois grew more comfortable around this sort of company she had no qualms about answering them or trying to start small talk conversations of her own with everyone else that was present.

Once breakfast was finished and she was helping with the dishes, a certain corgi came down that she hadn't seen in some time, who didn't notice her until he'd grabbed a cup of orange juice from the fridge and was in the middle of taking a sip.

“LOIS!?” King yelled, choking on his drink and coughing. He'd almost been unable to recognize her, at first just seeing a bobcat, and only making the connection due to her glasses.

“Hi, it's King, right? I haven’t seen you in a while.” She answered with a smile.

“W-were you trying to find me? Did I forget about an ECP meeting?” He said while pulling a phone out of his collar and frantically starting to check his calendar.

“No, I’m here with Poncho.” She said while putting a few plates on the drying rack.

“Good...” He sighed in relief, wiping his mouth off with a paper towel. “Is he doing checkup interview on you?”

Lois was going to come up with a more tactful answer but Natalie started making _that_ gesture with her hands while quickly and obviously glancing at Lois, King caught on and went wide-eyed while Lois gave a very nervous smile.

“Oh.” He said in surprise. Lois thought some sort of lecture or questions about if she knew what she was doing might follow, but instead he nodded at her. “It just sort of happens, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah... it’s nice though.”


End file.
